


Overlooked

by BloodThirstyAngel007



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author Is Not Religious, Author is tired, Author wrote this instead of studying, Based on a Tumblr Post, Ben Solo Deserved Better, Ben Solo Lives, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben Solo is a Mess, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Bottom Kylo Ren, Comfort, Comfort No Hurt, Coughing, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Fanfiction, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I cannot write smut for the life of me but I will try, Implied Poe Dameron/Finn, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Injury Recovery, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Not Related, Kylo Ren in Love, M/M, Minor Poe Dameron/Finn, Moving On, NO rape, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Ben Solo, Poe Dameron Is A Mess, Poe Dameron is a Good Friend, Poe Dameron/Finn Fluff, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Protective Poe Dameron, Protective Rey (Star Wars), Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey (Star Wars) is a Mess, Reylo - Freeform, Sex, Shower Sex, Soft Ben Solo, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, Submissive Kylo Ren, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Virgin Ben Solo, Whump, author regrets her life, dislocations, non con, rise of skywalker fix it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 26,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24191332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodThirstyAngel007/pseuds/BloodThirstyAngel007
Summary: Ben smiled too, no words were said, but they didn't need to be said. Rey's pushed herself against him and kissed.Ben kissed back, wrapping his arms around her waist."Ben?""Yes," he breathed.Here we have an alternative ending to the movie 'The Rise Of Skywalker' mainly because I hated so many things about it and Ben Solo deserves a lot better. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING.#Bensolodeservedbetter
Relationships: BB-8 & Poe Dameron, Finn & Ben Solo, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 136
Kudos: 152





	1. Ben

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, this was originally posted on Wattpad and then deleted off Wattpad, then I reread it and decided HEY LETS GIVE IT A BETTER PLOT...
> 
> so then I rewrote it and posted it here, and on wattpad...

He didn't know what the kriff he was thinking, It was a just figment of his imagination, Han wasn't actually there, in the ruins of the death star, he wasn't there, the man told himself sternly, it was just a memory. Ben Solo ran towards the entrance of Exogol, his Lightsaber never to be seen again once he had thrown it into the ocean, he could've called it back, he knew he could've. Except he didn't, he didn't want to and didn't feel like he deserved to, Han had made it clear that he didn't want him to have it, Han had shown the dark haired man a possibility. A pathway to redemption, Kylo Ren was dead, he had died the moment Ben Solo had made the choice to turn.

Ben Solo had also made the choice to hotwire a TIE-fighter and fly probably to his doom to save a woman who had been very clear that she hated him.

An eery silence came from the Exogol entrance. Ben looked down at the drop, Rey was already down there, he could feel her presence, humming like a wildfire through the force, he knew it too, the rock like elevator was at the bottom of the drop instead of the top, he would have to jump.

Ben couldn't help but let out a sob as he recalled the sound of his mothers voice, Leia... who he now sensed was gone, she was gone... and now Ben Solo was all alone... he had shown no love or mercy towards anyone and now he had no one to show mercy towards him. Except maybe Rey, from what had happened on the death star ruins and every time before that... The look she had given him as he laid there, helpless and dying, at her mercy. The tears she had shed as she decided that Kylo Ren was too far gone, even after he had reached out a hand, begged her to join him. She had refused.

'I wanted to take your hand,' she had murmured, her soft hands touching his chest healing the wound she had only a few seconds ago inflicted, 'Ben's hand.'

Ben...

He launched himself off the drop his body slamming hard into a large chain shaped pillar, biting his tongue the recently turned man couldn't help but let out a small "ow," as he felt several of his ribs crack from the impact. A loud chanting started up as he slid down the chain and to the ground and turned around before starting up his running again, ignoring the pain of his cracked ribs he fired backwards with his blaster in the general direction of a figure he saw in the distance before he caught his breath as he found himself surrounded by several of the group he had used to be part of. Used to be the master of, the Knights of Ren, Ben Solo raised his fists as the knights charged toward him. The dark haired man managed to fend off a few attacks, his ribs hindered him from moving freely and he soon found himself gasping for air, the Knights seemed amused and almost gleeful that he was now an enemy, Ben had known they'd never wanted him around.

He collapsed to his knees for several seconds before standing again and stumbling into a wall, Ben Solo had almost begun to give up turning to face the knights in surrender when there was a sudden connection, one not unlike the ones he'd had before, he could suddenly see Rey's face, clear as day, her hand was clenched around Luke's lightsaber, she looked straight into Ben's eyes, a faint look of shock and relief showing on her face as a soft tear trailed down her cheek she nodded a slight smile breaking out on her exhausted face, Ben stared back at her as she placed the lightsaber behind her back, nodding he mimicked her arm, putting it behind his back as Rey closed her eyes for a moment. 

The soft caress of the two force users bond enveloped around Ben and he instantly felt the cold metal of the saber in his hand. Ben looked at the Knights of Ren as they slowly advanced on him. lifting his arm from behind his back he held the lightsaber at his side, it felt oddly comfortable in his hand, the metal hilt soft against his tender skin that hadn't been ungloved in a quite a long period of time.

The saber was blue, the colour sent shivers down his spine, for he knew whom it had belonged to before this, the lightsaber was Luke's and before that, Luke's fathers and Ben felt that he really shouldn't have been using it. Ben's lightsaber had been blue before his turn, a lighter blue but blue nonetheless, using a lightsaber other than red was painful.

One of the knights, Ap'lek took a step back, his chest heaving as he stared at Ben through his mask. Ben looked around at the other surprised Knights and shrugged almost mockingly before lashing out with the saber at one Knight and backhanding another. Slicing another's neck open, he stabbed another in the chest before sidestepping a different one that had charged and it ran blindly into the wall where he stabbed it in the back with the saber, a slight wavering in the force warned him about an attack as he stood panting moving the saber behind his back the Knights weapon rebounded off it before he moved back in and stabbed the Knight through the chest.

Ben ran off in the direction that he sensed that Rey was in,he wasn't alone anymore he was with someone who trusted him, who he trusted. Looking back at the bodies of the knights of Ren, Ben was hoping they were all dead, hoping they would stay dead, the knights of Ren were no more, nothing but a piece of the past. Ben stumbled in the direction that he could hear noises, hoping he had shown that he was not on the dark side anymore, but then again neither was he on the light side... although he doubted they would take him anyway, Ben Solo was on his own side, and Rey's, if she'd have him.

Ben paused as he came into view of Rey, she was bleeding in several places and was fending off the sith cultists, Palpatine was attached to his strange life support device and was watching.

He dove forward and caught one of the cultists with the force dragging it forward across the ground. Rey had managed to fight off the rest, once they were gone he lowered his saber and looked at Rey who smiled slightly at him. Rey and Ben Solo both raised their lightsabers and turned to meet the Emperor not as enemies but as a team.

It was then that Ben stumbled at the pull of the force as Palpatine pulled him and Rey from their feet, he could see Rey fall as they were suspended in mid-air, staring into the face of Palpatine. His clear eye whites were all Ben could see in his eye sockets as he cackled, a deep throaty laugh that sent a chill down Ben's spine, Palpatine's wrinkled face contorted with laughter from underneath his hood.

"A force bond, a Dyad... how exciting..." he cackled "one so strong, that combined you make power not unlike my own."

"A Dyad, not seen for generations."

Palpatine continued speaking but Ben fond that he couldn't quite comprehend or catch onto his words he resisted against the sith's force hold but couldn't break free, his head was spinning and he couldn't make out his words properly.

Ben let out a hoarse gasp as Palpatine did something, used the force in order to take the force life from him, and Rey, he could see Rey next to him in his peripheral, her face was contorted in pain, the world was a blur... Ben Solo fought against it as Palpatine slowly regained a more human like physique and manifestation right before his eyes before he let go of the force and they crumpled to the ground.

Ben couldn't breath, everything was hurting, and his entire body felt like it was on fire. He laid there attempting to slow his out of control breathing, until eventually he passed out, next to Rey who had done the same.

________________

Ben's head was pounding... He could hardly breath; the air he was breathing in was taken in short gasps.

"Rey?" He asked breathlessly not even stopping to think about why she was the first thing he had thought of as he turned his head to the side in order to see Rey, she was on her side, her arms splayed towards him. Ben waited for the rise and fall of her chest before letting out a puff of relief knowing that she was still alive. He looked around as the world spun and put a hand to his head and gasped as his ears popped and the sounds of what was happening exploded in his ears.

Ben moved slightly towards Rey pulling himself painfully onto his knees. Ben was stopped as Palpatine moved into view, his eyes glowing the ugly yellow of the sith and his hands were shaking with electricity, fully alive now.

"So, our little prince lives does he?" Palpatine drawled, his eyes flashing as his gaze turned towards Ben. Ben couldn't help but shiver as he spat the lingering blood from his mouth. Palpatine spoke again but the ringing in Ben's ears stopped him from taking much notice.

Ben Solo was being lifted into the air again and he let out a gasp of pain.

"As I once did... So now falls the LAST SKYWALKER," Palpatine snarled he made an aggressive gesture with his arm and Ben felt himself being thrown, hurtling backwards before crashing against the wall with a crack. His breath escaped from his lungs as his body slammed against the stone wall and he toppled down a large crevice towards the core of Exogol.

And then he was falling; Ben couldn't control any of his limbs as he fell and found his arms splaying out in different directions as gravity pulled him ever faster down the gorge.

The impact as he landed on solid ground winded him; Ben felt his legs snap along with several of his ribs and he gasped with the sudden shock from the broken bones." Sounds were coming from above and he could hear the sounds of electricity, he could feel Rey, she was still unconscious as Ben attempted to transfer his remaining energy to her.

He tried to get his limbs to move but they refused, as he just laid there, slumped on the ground. Ben felt a small flow of blood trickle from his mouth where he had bitten his tongue and wiped it off with the back of his hand. His leg was broken and he had dropped the lightsaber where Rey and he had fallen when Palpatine had figured out they were a Dyad.

Ben finally found the will to move as he managed to push himself up and lent against the wall, he was lucky that he hadn't broken his neck, the height he had fallen from he wasn't sure how he had survived. Ben pushed himself further upright until he was in a sitting position and managed to look around. The hole he had fallen into was pitch black, but as his eyes adjusted he could see small crevices that he might be able to use as hand holds, if only he could get to his feet.

He managed to get a hold on a jutting rock and eventually got to his feet but immediately fell back down again as he discovered that his ankle was broken along with the other leg that he had felt snap. The pain was dull and almost not there but Ben knew that was because his strength was draining, it was leaving at a slow trickle, he didn't have long before it was gone and he wouldn't be able to climb out at all.

He felt a wave of terror as the force told him something was happening to Rey, Ben could hear voices from the top of the hole but they sounded vague and far away. Desperation urged him to his feet and he managed to get a hold on the wall and hoist himself up, slowly, one tiny inch at a time.

Ben opened his mouth and reached into the force for anyone of his ancestors that might listen "Be with her, Please, Be with her." His fingers were broken beyond repair as he climbed up the sharp rocks, the force was silent, Ben could feel anger rising in his throat, he tried to hold it back but couldn't stop himself when he opened his mouth. "BE WITH HER!," Ben screamed hoarsely, "CAN YOU HEAR ME FOR ONCE IN MY PATHETIC LIFE? BE WITH HER, SHE NEEDS YOU SO PLEASE, FOR HER SAKE, SAVE HER!" Ben desperately pulled himself faster up the rocks, as he got closer to the top the sounds got louder, until they abruptly turned to silence. "Please..." he whispered, "I need her..."

A wave of grief hit him as silence filled the area; he had to get to Rey. Ben pulled himself faster up the cliff and looked up. It was so long away and he had such little time, Rey felt so distant through the force connection the two Jedi had, he reached out his senses for the force and used it to help him climb.

Ben slipped, but kept climbing. He had to get up, because suddenly he couldn't feel Rey at all.

It was then that Ben knew she was gone, a crushing weight dropped onto the dark haired man like a stone, his lungs couldn't seem to work and he had to stop and cling desperately to the side of the cliff for a moment as he tried to gather himself, Rey was gone, she was gone and it was all Ben's fault. Ben let out a cry of anger, there was now truly nothing left for him, the future he had caught himself constantly dreaming about was gone, Rey was gone. And Ben Solo, the last Skywalker was all alone...

His hand finally caught onto the top and he exhaustively pulled himself up by his knees and slumped forward.

Ben looked up pushing his hair out of his face, Palpatine was nowhere in sight, he could see Rey; Ben Solo felt himself break as he saw her body slumped across the ground, motionless and un-moving. He pulled himself to his feet and stumbled towards her for a few steps before his legs gave way and he fell down leg and ankle screaming in pain, all his energy spent. Ben pulled himself up onto his elbows and dragged himself the rest of the way towards her body.

She wasn't breathing, her head lolled back helplessly as Ben pushed his arm under her back and pulled her up so that he could cradle her in his arms, The newly redeemed jedi desperately held her in his arms and looked around for anyone, anything, for a force ghost that was apparently supposed to appear for a Jedi in need of help.

But no-one came, Ben opened his mouth but closed it again as he realised he was alone, no one would help him, the only thing he could do now was to save her himself, Ben pulled Rey against his chest and held her against him in a quiet embrace before letting her go and gently whispering to her "can you hear me? Rey... please, I need you..."

Ben gently put his hand on her stomach and let his mind circle around her, willing her to live, to heal, to breath. Ben let a sob escape his mouth as he watched her, transferring whatever force life he had left into her.

Ben Solo gave her everything.

"Please..."

Finally she lifted her hand and placed it on Ben's, he watched as she opened her eyes and Ben let the tears he'd been holding back fall freely down his cheeks as he pulled her up so she could see him properly. She stared at Ben for a moment after she lifted her head, and then smiled.

Ben couldn't help it, but he smiled too, she put her hand on his cheek and just smiled, no words were said, but they didn't need to be said. She pushed her hands into his hair and suddenly pulled his head towards hers. Rey's lips connected with Ben's; she pushed herself against him and kissed, her lips were soft against Ben's split lip, soft in a way that he hadn't felt in years. 

After the shock and confusion had passed Ben kissed back, wrapping his arms around her waist until Rey eventually pulled away. Ben could feel tears glistening on his cheeks and hugged her back, the full force of his injuries weighed down on him all of a sudden, she smiled and Ben smiled back.

"Ben?"

"Yes," he breathed.

Ben could feel himself slipping away as they hugged, Rey was shaking, Ben smiled in spite of himself before letting the icy grips of nothingness take him and he fell backwards, Rey let a small "wait..." escape her lips as she clutched at Ben's head as he closed his eyes and let go...

\--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--__--


	2. Rey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp

Rey pulled away from the kiss she had given Ben and smiled, Ben's eyes were shining, with both happiness and probably fever; Rey pulled his shaking body into a hug and they two force users just sat there for a while until Rey felt Ben stiffen and fall backwards slightly, she held on tightly but he fell backwards out of her arms like a dead weight. Ben smiled slightly, his lips shaking as he smiled and went still.

"Ben..." Rey whispered taking his hand and rubbing his chest she gently placed her trembling hand on his wrist and checked for a pulse point, there was none. Rey pushed the loose strands of her hair out of her face and wiped her eyes.

She leaned over his body and tangled her pale fingers in his hair before pressing her lips against his and letting more tears spill from her eyes "no.... Ben... Please..." Rey lifted his head slightly and held it against her own before letting it sit in her lap while she stroked his hair, he didn't move again. Rey let a sob escape her lips as she stared at him, the light had left his beautiful hazel eyes and he stared unblinking and motionless at the roof of the cave.

Rey thought back to a few moments ago when she thought him dead, she had woken from the daze, her head spinning. Ben was nowhere in sight, the sky was alight with the force lightning from Rey's grandfathers. No... Palpatine's fingers. Rey hadn't felt this hollow, this empty. But that was because Ben wasn't dead then... 

Rey brushed her fingers over Ben's eyes and gently closed them, the silence in the force was foreboding, she couldn't feel anyone... or anything... Even General Leia's presence in the force was gone. 

If only she hadn't stabbed him, if only she hadn't needed to heal him, he wouldn't of given the force life she had given him back to her, and he wouldn't have been gone.

I want you to join me... please...

He had been so insistent in wanting her, and Rey had been oblivious. She wiped her cheeks and stroked her hands through his hair; she could hear people outside, Finn... and probably Poe, waiting for her to join them, to go back to base and celebrate their win...

They had won...

But why did she feel so, empty? Like they hadn't won... They had just survived.

Rey just sat there as she stared at Ben's body, why hadn't it faded into the force?

She gently put her hand onto his stomach and felt for the stab wound that she had given him but it wasn't there, obviously because she had healed him. Rey reached into the force for Ben's signature, she let out a breath as she caught a trace of him, vague but still there. Rey desperately hung onto the last trace of him, wrapped her mind around him, tied him to her. They were a Dyad, two that were one, he couldn't just... die. The brunette put a finger against Ben's wrist and let out a breath of relieved fear when she suddenly felt a pulse, small and barely there, but it was there.

"Ben?" She asked desperately, Rey held on desperately to the remaining force signature of him. "Please..." she watched his features, the beauty marks that scattered his face like constellations, his full lips and everything else. She took in a breath when she caught his chest begin to heave in and out, taking in desperate gulps of air "Ben?" Rey asked carefully, the sounds from outside had faded so she assumed that everyone had left, and gone to celebrate their victory, the two Jedi were alone. Rey watched Ben until his eyes finally flickered open, hardly a crack but he smiled when his eyes landed on her "Rey?" he mumbled, Rey nodded and stroked his head gently, she smiled and let out a sob as tears fell freely from her eyes. She tried not to focus on the fact that his eyes were still shining with fever and he was shaking.

"I'm here, we should, probably leave though..."

Rey pulled in a breath as she caught sight of blood darkening his shirt and gently pulled it up showing his stomach receiving a gasp of pain from Ben. The place where she had stabbed him had opened up and was seeping blood, the wound hadn't reopened enough to kill him but if it didn't get attention he would probably die of blood loss, Rey bit her lip, maybe she hadn't stayed healing him long enough and the stress of being brought back from the brink of death had caused it to reopen.

Ben gently reached up with a hand and stroked Rey's lip, the cracked skin was sore but Ben's touch was almost soothing. Rey reached up and pulled the ties from her hair and let the brown strands waterfall down her back as Ben smiled.

Ben was beginning to close his eyes and Rey rubbed his forehead urgently "you can't sleep right now, sorry but we've got to get back to base and get you some medical attention."'

He opened his eyes again and nodded, Rey pulled his hand from her cheek and gently kissed his bruised knuckles. She helped him into a sitting position against the wall.

"Wait..." Ben gasped as the movement caused more blood to flow from his wound.

Rey looked at him with concern, "What is it?"

Ben looked at the brunette and she could've sworn she saw fear in his eyes "I can't go.... Back." He mumbled his voice slurred and feverish.

Rey stared at him, "Ben if we don't you're going to die..."

Ben fell forward and Rey caught his head in her hands and wiped the blood off his lips "its okay, I won't let anything happen to you okay?"

Ben looked up at her, "that's not what- what, I'm worried about."

Rey paused, the dark haired man had a point, if she went back to the resistance with Kylo Ren and claimed that he was all of a sudden on their side she may not have many people in her favour. Rey looked back at Ben, "we'll figure that out later okay?"

Ben nodded slowly but it may have just been the fever making his head droop, Rey stood up slowly ignoring the slight headache she had and the ache off all the burns and scratches she had received in her fight against Palpatine, she carefully picked up Luke and Leia's lightsabers where she had dropped them earlier and strapped them to her belt before reaching out a hand to Ben, he took it and she pulled him to his feet where he fell against her, his feet buckling beneath him, Rey barely caught his crushing six foot weight and let him lean against her shoulder.

Ben's ankle was bent backwards and his knee was sitting at an odd angle but he seemed to be trying to put weight on it to relieve Rey's strain.

"My ship is just outside okay." Rey told him, Ben nodded and she helped him walk slowly towards the boulder like elevator, helping Ben onto it Rey waited for it to go up, or move or something but it didn't.

She looked at Ben who was leaning against her heavily but still not letting all of his weight crush her. He looked ready to pass out, his other hand was clutched over his wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. Rey desperately reached out in the force and tried to bend it to make the rock move, Ben seemed to figure what she was doing and reached out his hand from his stomach, Rey looked at him about to stop him from using up whatever energy he had left when the rock started moving up.

Ben collapsed when it reached the top and Rey had to let him fully lean against her to get him to Luke's X-wing. She only just managed to get him into the seat before the rock behind them started crumbling, Ben was sprawled on the only seat when Rey climbed in so she had to try and move him so they could both fit into the same seat. Rey tore the cloth off her arm and passed it to him "press it against the bleeding," she instructed before taking her helmet and shoving it onto her head. She closed the roof and took off towards Ajan-Kloss.

Rey let the ship go into lightspeed and kept an eye on the windscreen while she turned back to Ben who was shaking almost uncontrollably, she saw that the cloth she had given him was soaked with blood and he had his eyes closed, his face contorted in poorly hidden pain.

Logically a lightsaber wound shouldn't bleed but maybe because it had been healed and then reopened...

Rey reached for her bag and pulled out the first aid bacta from the front pocket before pulling Ben's shirt up. The wound was red and inflamed, several other white scars dotted the flesh of the rest of his pale stomach, the blood seeping out was not stopping so she peeled the rest of the cloth off her arms and pressed it against the wound stemming the blood before applying some more Bacta onto the wound and putting the cloth back where the blood seemed to be coming from most. Rey grabbed Ben's hand and urged him to hold it onto the wound before turning back to the window.

The X-wing had come out of lightspeed for some reason and as Rey watched they seemed to slow down all together. Rey stared at the fuel chamber, the dial had reached red. Rey cursed under her breath, how did she think that an x-wing that hadn't been used in thirty years would have lasted long enough to get halfway across the galaxy.

Rey almost whacked her head against the dashboard as the ship lurched, "Looks like we're going down," she muttered checking the radar to her side and directing the falcon towards the closest planet.

Rey turned back to Ben "better buckle up," she muttered, her heart rate was spiraling out of control, "we're out of fuel, and about to go down..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliff hanger... again


	3. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> erm...  
> comfort? I guess

Ben had never expected to find himself on a resistance fighter ever again, not since master Luke had tried to kill him, not since he had abandoned the Jedi temple on yavin IV after it had caught fire and killed most of the other apprentices whom Ben had trained with. After the padawans Tai, Voe and Hennix had attacked him and forced him to retaliate, not since he had killed his father, and certainly not since he had joined the knights of Ren and after that; the dark side. Except, here Ben Solo was, sharing the only seat with Rey in a resistance X-wing and even more importantly, this was Luke's fighter. Ben's uncle Luke's X-wing that had been built back before Ben had even been born.

The past few hours had gone by so fast Ben almost thought he had blacked out for most of it, and it felt like he was missing a load of information that would probably be useful if someone would just fill him in on it. Most of the blank parts were filled with confusing turns so Ben quickly gave up on that part of understanding. Instead he decided to try and gather what he knew had happened. His recollection was foggy but what he could remember was falling down that rather large crevice on Exogol, his leg and ankle were broken, which was obvious and somewhere between him bring Rey back to life and force jumping the X-wing into lightspeed the stab wound from Rey driving his lightsaber through his chest had reopened and his clothes were soaked with his own blood. 

Ben had just brought Rey back to life, something that not even his grandfather Anakin Skywalker could achieve. Somehow Ben Solo, the seemingly most hated man in the galaxy had done it. Everything was fuzzy from there on.

Rey had barely turned away for a moment before she turned her body around so she was facing Ben, her eyes were wide, "We have a problem," she said. Ben cracked open his eyes "can you expand on that?" He questioned wincing as he pulled himself into a sitting position, his broken ribs shifting and kriff, Ben really hated breaking ribs.

"Well to start with, we probably should have checked the fuel that was in the X-wing before taking off," she said "and, second, we are now hurtling towards a planet that the radar says is named Hoth..."

Ben's breath hitched, Hoth was one of the coldest snow planets in the galaxy and was a home to several of the galaxies most dangerous beasts. He closed his eyes before reopening, "We're going down the-" Ben didn't get to finish his sentence because the world seemed to shake and gravitational pull flung his head thwack against the dashboard. Rey was fumbling for the seat eject key but didn't have the time. Ben shifted so that he was wrapping his arms around Rey in attempt to block her from most of the damage when the Fighter hit planet and the world went black.

\-------

A high pitched ringing was screaming through the dark haired man's ears. He lifted his hands to his ears and attempted to stop the sound but it wouldn't relent. 

Gasping out a breath Ben opened his eyes that were pressed tightly together and looked around, his hands still covering his ears as he took in the drastic change in scenery, Luke's x-wing had fallen directly toward an icy cave structure, the nose was buried deep inside the rock.

Ben had obviously been thrown from the ship, when it crashed, the roof of the ship was sitting in flames a few yards off. Ben himself had hit the rock about a meter away at force enough to make several small boulders crumble off the cave because they were now trapping his leg with the curve of his foot sitting caught in between the stone.

Ben could've been making loud gasps of pain but he couldn't make out anything over the ringing in his ears from his head hitting the rock, he stared down at his chest and swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat in seeing the fresh blood that was soaking his shirt.

But Ben didn't care about that at the moment because he couldn't see Rey anywhere.

Ben shut his eyes and tried to shift his foot, the rocks wouldn't budge, his breathing came in short gasps as he tried to move the rock but to no avail. Desperately he reached out his arm randomly behind him and around his sides until his fingers found purchase and he pulled a short but thick branch that must've fallen from the dead tree from above his head. Ben rubbed his shoulders trying to get the blood pumping to warm him up under the snow that had started to fall.

He shoved the branch under the rock and put all his weight on it, letting out a grunt as his ribs screamed in pain at the disturbance in their healing until finally the boulder moved and toppled the rest of the way down the slope.

Ben let out a gasp as he shifted his foot and managed to shuffle down the slope crawling against the cold stone until he finally stood up and squeezed his eyes shut while he stumbled heavily on his broken legs. The x-wing was in a lot less wreck than it actually seemed at first. The roof was off and one of the wings was scratched up along with the nose bashed against the cave it seemed better off than the mountain.

Ben still couldn't see Rey.

The ringing in his ears had faded until he could at least hear a little bit and he plucked up the courage to call out in the empty snow ridden planet.

"REY!" He called, his voice cracked as he looked around, searching the force for her signature. He could feel her, but not see her. Ben stumbled to the cockpit of the fighter and used the ship as a crutch as he circled it, searching for Rey. He finally found her slumped against the ground, the ships seat was crashed next to her, having ejected at a delay. Ben's eyes drifted towards her face. she was sweating and had a large gash along her temple, her shoulder was sitting forward and hung limply at her side.

"Kriff Rey Thank god you're all right." Ben let out a huff of relief as his legs gave out and fell in front of her, wiping her damp hair out of her face.

Rey's eyes fluttered open, "Oh... hey..." she murmured, "you okay?

Ben let a smile escape his tight lips "barely," he nodded at her, "You're hurt," Ben noted.

Rey narrowed her eyes "I'm fine," she said "you should look at yourself."

Ben smiled and lent his head against her chest as she stroked her fingers through his hair and breathed in her scent, "You smell like Bacta," he murmured, before pulling away from the contact awkwardly, lowering his head.

"You are delirious," Rey retorted pressing her hand against Ben's chest wound and lifting his head so that he met her eyes. "I need to fix your legs," she said moving slightly towards his legs.

"Let me set your arm back in its socket so that you can," he said gently pulling her back towards him, she laughed lightheartedly and a huff of steam in the cold air puffed against his face. Rey suddenly pressed her lips against Ben's and wrapped her uninjured arm around his chest, when she pulled back Ben couldn't help but smile "what was that for?" he questioned.

Rey looked at him with a slight gleam in her eyes "In case you forgot the first one," she murmured.

Ben smiled awkwardly and pushed himself up so that he wasn't leaning against her "you have snowflakes in your eyelashes," he teased as he took a gentle hold of her dislocated arm, "this might hurt," he said as he lifted her arm and pushed on her shoulder until it popped back into the right place, Rey let out a yelp and her other arm went instinctively towards Ben's hand but paused "that hurt!" she raised her voice.

"I told you it might," Ben said not releasing her arm from his grip. he finally let go about a minute later when he was hit by a wave of nausea and had to lay back down to prevent himself from emptying his already empty stomach. Rey stared down at him with concern "are you okay?"

Ben smiled "as okay as I can be in the middle of nowhere on a freezing cold planet."

Rey rose to a crouch tripping for a moment before steadying herself and revealing a large gash in the back of her knee that Ben hadn't noticed before, it was seeping blood and there were several splinters of glass from the shattered roof sticking out of the wound like she had pulled whatever had caused the gash out and left the less obvious ones.

"you still have snowflakes on your eyelashes," he teased hoping his voice didn't sound too strained. Rey gave him a mock growl of disapproval as she lowered herself to his level and began searching through her bag. Ben sat up and waited until his head stopped spinning before grabbing a pair of medical scissors that were visible in her bag, closing them and cleaning them off with his shirt before he leaned forward and used them as makeshift tweezers to pull the excess shards of stone from his legs.

Rey turned towards him as she heaved out what seemed to be a medical first aid kit and pulled her legs into a cross legged position keeping her left one stretched out, she pulled out an actual pair of tweezers and chucked them to Ben "Those might work better than scissors."

"Maybe,' he murmured, gently pulling Rey's leg towards him, Rey looked towards him dubiously but didn't pull away as he pulled the splinters from the back of her knee, she flinched a few times as he pulled the larger ones from her leg but otherwise kept quiet as she dug through the medbag.

"My comlink smashed because I fell on top of it," she murmured as she pulled a fresh bottle of bacta and a bundle of bandages from the bag "the internal comlink is also busted from the crash, although I might be able to fix it if I can get beneath the ship to all the wires and stuff. Ben grabbed one of the bacta bottles from her pile and rubbed it gently into her wound before grabbing a length of bandage and wrapping it tightly around her knee.

Ben pulled her closer so he could rub some Bacta onto her head, "what are the chances of surviving in this temperature until you do? He asked as the chill of Hoth began to settle in. Rey studied Ben's stomach before replying "very low, although probably higher if we manage to find warmth until I can."

Ben let out a sigh as Rey made him lie down so she could rub a handful of bacta into his wound and re wrap his stomach with a fresh layer of bandages. Rey frowned as she shifted his legs so that the bones were lines up and made him lean against the ship while she did so.

Rey climbed back into the ship and pulled Ben into it with her, they curled up in the corner where the engine was still warm.

Rey frowned at Ben "huddle," she commanded.

Ben nodded but not before fiddling with a handle and pulling what looked like a ragged old blanket from the storage compartment behind her back, "use this." he told her.

Rey frowned at the blanket, "I'll be fine," she insisted.

Ben shook his head "You need it more I have more layers, and plus, I'm used to the cold..." Ben trailed off remembering the night a day after he had been beaten by Rey on Star Killer base, Snoke had sent him to Hoth on a mission without any warm clothing to find a permafrost crystal, he had said it was part of Ben's training but really he knew it was punishment, for failing. Ben had tended to his own wounds after that night, the slash on his face, the gunshot to his stomach and the slash across his chest, Needing help was a weakness. Except the 'training' was nothing compared to his actual punishment.

Ben suddenly realised Rey was studying him with what looked like concern on her face, actual genuine concern, "what?" he asked, Rey shook her head "are you okay?" she asked. Ben nodded at the blanket "I will be, once you're warm." 

Rey sighed as she stood up and grabbed the bundled up blanket from the floor of the ship and sat back down beside him. She unfolded it and shoved a pile of bandages on the floor and beneath his head before sliding closer to Ben and lying down pressing her warm body against his and pulling the blanket over the two of them "now we're both happy," she murmured her feet pressed against his.

Ben closed his eyes after a moment letting his carefully placed mental walls fall as he rested his head on his arm and found himself drifting to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMFORT yay


	4. Rey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> erm, my sad attempt at writing fluff....
> 
> Hope ya like it.

When Rey woke up, she found herself sweating, she shuddered against Ben’s immobile body and stiffened until she reached out through the bond and found that he was merely asleep. Ben’s breaths were uneven and feverish but at least he was alive. Rey sat up and pulled herself out of the old blanket that smelt of seaweed and dust before getting unsteadily to her feet, she let out a huff of air into her cupped palms in attempt to warm up as she grabbed the bundle of bandages on the floor and stashed them in her bag.

Rey pushed her loose hair behind her ears as she fiddled with her belt and loosened it so she could settle her wraps tighter around her shivering body as she adjusted to the cold after being warm under the blanket.

It must have been a while that they had been asleep- for the sun was shining in the gloom outside the x-wing. Rey glanced at Ben and almost smiled at the peaceful and calm line his mouth was relaxed into.

She leaned forward onto his chest careful not to put weight on his broken ribs and the wound in his abdomen and gently rubbed her thumb in soft circles on his cheek, “Ben,” she murmured her breath softly billowing onto his face.

Ben’s eyes fluttered for a moment before he opened them and gazed up at her, his beautiful hazel eyes were shining with fever, but he smiled nonetheless as he stared into hers. Rey smiled, “hey,” she murmured rubbing his cheek tracing the beauty marks under his eye.

Ben smiled that beautiful smile again, the one he had given her after he had pretty much brought her back to life, the one that suited him so well but at the same time looked so out of place on his face that she was so used to seeing frown. Their time on Exogol went past so fast that Rey could barely remember what had happened. The smile on ben’s face hid any sign of the past trauma that he had experienced, they showed none of the pain that he had been in and probably still was.

Rey gently ran her hand through his tousled dark hair running her other over his cheek that was no longer scarred, the once marred and red skin was now soft and pale, no sign other than a faint white line showed that there had ever been any scar there at all.

She tensed as Ben shifted and pushed his arm beneath his back as he pushed himself into a sitting position, she could see the visible discomfort that showed on his face as he moved and Rey could have sworn that she could feel several ribs shift.

Ben winced as he shifted and his back leant heavily against the wall as his chest heaved, he seemed to be in a lot more pain then Rey was, she could feel the bandage rubbing against the back of her leg where Ben had wrapped the gash that split open the back of her knee. Putting the back of her hand to his forehead Rey pulled back abruptly as she felt his skin burning up, she shifted from her spot at his side and pulled the blanket off his chest, “you’re burning up!” She reached back for her bag and pulled it onto her lap intending to have a look for something that would bring the fever down when Ben caught her wrist in his hand, “I’m fine Rey,” he caught her eyes and Rey could feel nothing but reassurance flowing through the bond, “you’ve got a fever,” she insisted pulling her hand from his grip.

Ben laughed, his voice sounding dry, “you should see yourself,” he brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, “you’re all flushed.” 

Rey almost scoffed, “I’m always flushed, I grew up on Jakku,” she reminded him, “my skin is permanently tanned a shade darker than it’s supposed to be,” pulling her bag closer she went back to digging through the medical supplies. “Rey.”

Rey looked up, she could not let Ben die, they had gotten this far. Survived far too much for Ben to die from something as simple as a fever, she could feel him shivering beside her besides the face that he was burning up.

Pulling out the bundle of bandages she had used as a pillow she reached for him, “I need to splint your legs,” she told him. She could have sworn she saw Ben roll his eyes, “Rey, they’re fine,” the dark haired man took her hands in his, “you’ve taken care of me enough,” he seemed to take a moment to still his trembling hands before continuing, “let me take care of you…”

Rey shook her head, “I’m fine,” she insisted but Ben simply pulled the med bag from her hands and reached back for the bandages.

“You’re bleeding.”

“No, I’m-.”

“Rey, let me take care of you,” Rey watched as his lips trembled for a moment, “please.”

Pausing, Rey rubbed her arms with her hands as she tried to adjust to the cold, she had a headache starting and her recently relocated dislocation was killing her arm, the cold seemed to make it worse, “fine,” she grumbled shifting her legs so that she could sit down properly and waited for Ben to do something.

Ben smiled, knowing that he had won the argument he reached forward and pulled Rey’s leg out in front of her and unwinding the bandages around her knee. Rey let out a soft hiss as the bandage rubbed against the tender skin and wrapped her bad arm around her chest biting her lip. Ben looked at her his eyes apologetic, “sorry,” he murmured discarding the bloody bandages and pulling out some fresh ones. He met her eyes as he rubbed bacta into the wound and Rey gritted her teeth against the throbbing pain that came from Ben’s gentle hand movements.

She leaned back on the ball of her good arms wrist as he wrapped fresh bandages around her leg and tucked the end into the rest of the bandage before pulling her leg back towards herself and crossing them together, the silence was interrupted as Ben let out a hoarse cough before pulling her closer to his warm chest the heat felt nice on her frozen skin but still Ben was shivering.

“You’re cold,” he murmured pulling her closer and running his fingers through her damp hair that hung limply around her shoulders, Rey closed her eyes and smiled as she rubbed circles into Ben’s knee, “you’re hot.” She told him snuggling into his warm chest sharing their body heat.

Ben let out a laugh that turned into a cough, “thanks,” he teased, his voice soft. Rey turned and gently moved her hand down to feel the stab wound in his abdomen, the bandages were wet with blood from what she could feel, Rey let out a sigh. Ben’s breath was hitching every time he breathed in which told her that his ribs were most likely broken, he leant his head on hers and helped her hold her sore arm to her chest while she put a ghost of pressure against his torso.

She felt her fingers rub against his legs and something in her memory sparked as she remembered that Ben’s legs were still broken, “I need to find something for your legs,” she spoke into his chest and her voice came out muffled.

She could almost imagine Ben smiling as he stroked her hair, “that can wait,” he spoke, his voice low. “for now, we need to work on getting the internal commlink working so that we can get some help from your resistance friends.”

Rey sighed, a motion she seemed to be doing a lot lately and licked her lips finding them dry, all the moisture in her mouth was gone and she dug in her bag for her water canteen. Eventually she found it sitting beneath Luke and Leia’s lightsabres, pulling the canteen out she put it to her lips and gulped down a few mouthfuls before handing it to Ben who took it gratefully.

Rey pulled herself to her feel reluctantly, her injured knee shaking under her weight as she stood. She reached her hand out for Ben to pull himself up with, but he waved it away and pushed himself to his feet gripping the edge of the X-wing. Rey watched as he stumbled but managed to stay upright, she reached out to him several times, but Ben refused her help insisting that he could do it.

She climbed out of the ship, hooking her leg over the side and swinging herself out onto the snow letting out a gasp as she landed hard on her leg and the impact caused her arm to fall from where she was holding it and she felt the muscles rearrange themselves, her eyes watered for a moment as she rubbed her shoulder urging the blood to circulate around the sore muscles.

Ben followed, he swore under his breath as his legs buckled beneath him as he landed, managing to stay upright he cursed a more times until Rey reached up with her good arm and carefully pushed his hair out of his eyes, she rubbed a circle into his cheek and murmured under her breath. “Are you okay?”

Ben nodded tensely his eyes pained as he wrapped his arms around his middle, pushing his palm against his abdomen, “you gotta figure out how to fix-.” He waved his arm in the direction of the X-wing unable to finish his sentence.

Rey thought on this for a moment, squinting in the bright light that came from the harsh sun’s rays reflecting off of the stark white snow, the sun had no warmth however and didn’t do anything to still Rey’s shivering limbs, “well, to work the commlink, we’ve got to get the fighter up and running before I can substitute a few wirings, and hopefully it reaches the base…”

Ben mumbled a few things under his breath before nodding and straightening himself where he was leaning against the side of the X-wing, “what d’you need?” he asked. Rey reached her good arm into the X-wing and fumbled around before her hand managed to grab the strap of her bag and pull it out. She dug in it until she found the medical scissors and held them up, “these for now,” she passed the med bag to Ben and hooked her bag around her shoulders and lifting the already loose bonnet up. Her eyes drifted across the fried circuits that were probably the cause of her force jumping it into Lightspeed without a hyperdrive.

She dug around for a moment until she found the coolant tank which was burning and probably the main source of the ship going down, she reached down and got a handful of snow in her hand and chucked it in the tank, water wasn’t as effective as coolant but at least it would cool it down.

She continued to dig around, it took longer than she had hoped because she was handicapped with her bad arm but she finally found the wire she was looking for and hacked through it with the medical scissors, and did the same with another wire. Turning to Ben she called out, “can you find me something sticky and rubber?”

Ben dug around in the bag for a moment before chucking something at her that Rey barely managed to catch, she turned it over and inspected It, Ben had chucked her a roll of electrical tape and Rey took a moment to wonder why the hell it was in the mad bag before rewiring the cut wires and sealing them shut with the tape.

She closed the bonnet and stumbled back to Ben handing him the scissors and tape to put back in the bag. “Should be rewired enough to start the ship,” she murmured before climbing up the bonnet and swinging her legs into the ship and reaching out to Ben, he took her hand reluctantly and Rey steeled herself gripping tightly to the edge of the ship while Ben climbed in, he groaned in a sad attempt to hide his pain before leaning heavily against wall while Rey did the familiar starting sequence and let out a whoop as the ship hummed to life.

She turned back to Ben and wrapped him into a warm embrace, “now all we’ve got to do is get the commlink fixed,” she murmured.

Ben’s breath hitched as he breathed, he was still shivering but despite all that, he hugged her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter took so long to come out, I got a new laptop and all my files and short stories and oneshots got all muddled up so that was a lot to fix up.  
> But I got it out in the end, so I hope you like it :D  
> And Oh my gosh, 22 Kudo's Thank you so Much!!!


	5. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more fluff...

“Ben,” the voice rang through his ears but Ben could hear nothing aside from the pounding ripping through his head, his ribs were aching and Ben could feel his stomach still seeping blood, he wrapped his arms protectively around his chest and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Ben!” the voice called again a bit more urgently, Ben let out a groan as the noise blasted through his ears, Ben’s legs screamed in protest as he pulled them closer to his stomach, the bones had started to heal thanks to the help of the Bacta but they still hurt.

“Ben!” He was pulled from where he was lying on his side and onto his back, he felt a whimper escape his mouth as his broken ribs shifted and settled down again as his position was changed. He cracked open his eyes and let out a huff of breath in the cold air. His eyes met Rey’s; she was leaning over the top of him her mouth set in a worried line.

The two of them had passed out on the floor after Rey had gotten the x-wing back online and spent the night tangled up in each other’s limbs, Rey evidently had woken up first. The thought that she had been awake before him unnerved Ben, but he trusted her enough not to do anything.

“You okay?” Ben heard Rey ask, her hair was out and hanging around her neck, her eyes were soft with concern. “yeah, m’fine…” Ben mumbled hoping his words weren’t too slurred and incomprehensible, Rey continued staring at him with round eyes, she opened her mouth, closed it and then spoke, “I fixed the internal commlink,” she stared at him for a moment before continuing, “there’s no signal in this area and we have no fuel to be able to move the wing,” she looked up at the sky and Ben noticed with a jolt that it was snowing, Rey looked back at him before continuing, “I need your help to move it so we can find some signal.”

Ben lifted his head and pulled himself painfully into a sitting position so that he was leaning against the side of the ship with his legs out in front of him, “there’s an old base somewhere here, we might get some signal there.”  
Rey pushed her hair out of her face, “okay,” she took in a breath, Ben noticed the change in emotion through the bond and pulled her towards him, “I’m worried about you,” he murmured into her ear, Rey caught herself before her bad arm buckled and she let out a wince as she crashed into his chest.

Ben felt his breath hitch painfully as her chin connected with his ribs, Ben’s abdomen throbbed, and he blinked the tears from his eyes as he wrapped his arms around Rey’s trembling body. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Rey gasped as she wrapped her injured arm around her chest and pulled away from him, Ben met her eyes, “it’s fine,” he breathed pulling in a breath and then letting it out again, Rey grabbed his wrist and rubbed calming circles into his palm as he managed to slow his breathing down, “are you okay?” Ben asked when he could manage to thread a sentence together again.

Rey nodded, “why?”  
Ben reached up and pushed her loose hair out of her eyes, “look at yourself,” he said running his thumb over her cheek “you’re shaking, and you’re so pale…” Ben ran his hand down her spine and rested it back on his lap as Rey shivered. Rey relaxed her body and shifted as she sank to her knees and sat comfortably on the floor, “you should see yourself,” she retorted. Ben looped his hand around her wrist and felt her pulse, it was slow and sluggish, and her skin was cold and clammy, “I think you’ve got hypothomia,” Ben told her.

Rey shifted uncomfortably and pulled her injured arm closer to her chest, pulling her wrist out of Ben’s grip she blinked at it thoughtfully, “nonsense. It’s just the sniffles… to much-.” She broke off with a hoarse cough, “too much dust in this old musty fighter…” Ben would’ve laughed if he hadn’t known his ribs would protest greatly against the motion, “this musty old fighter is where yours truly spent most of his time when he was a great deal younger.”

Rey rolled her eyes, “oh, you must feel so old,” she gripped the side of the x-wing and used it to pulled herself to her feet, Ben let out a grumble as he stared up at her, “yes, very old.” He muttered. Rey looked down at him her brown eyes soft, Ben could almost swear that he’d get lost in them one day. “Okay then, c’mon then lazy pants we should find the seat, so we at least have most of the x-wing when we get off this planet.” She grabbed Ben’s arm and looked at him encouragingly, “I don’t want to have to drag you.”

Ben leaned back dramatically as he hooked his fingers around Rey’s, “oh, you may just have to drag me,” he said massaging his legs and preparing to stand up, “c’mon you great lump.”  
“I’m not a lump!”  
“yes, you are, you’re at least a head taller than me, I can barely lift your arm, let alone you. Therefore, you are a lump.”  
Ben rolled his eyes, “okay. What’s in it for me?” He swallowed hoping he didn’t sound too harsh. Rey didn’t seem fazed though, “you will earn the title of king of lumpiness,” she decided.

“King of lumpiness yourself,” Ben retorted, he shifted, wincing as the broken bones in his legs shifted “my legs are broken,” he reminded her, “and I have a stab wound.” Rey nodded at him thoughtfully, “on other thoughts I might just get it myself,” she tapped her chin her eyes round with worry, Ben almost told her he’d be fine when she spoke before he could, “will you be okay on your own?” she asked.

Ben nodded, his lips trembling against his will as he shifted again, Rey leaned down to him and pulled him into a soft hug, her uninjured arm wrapping around him. Ben wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her scent, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck, “you need a shower,” Rey murmured.  
Ben smiled into her cheek, “so do you,” he loosened his grip as Rey pulled away and grabbed the medbag from her bag and pressed it into his hands, “I’ll be back, you’ve gotta do something with you’re legs… maybe rub some Bacta into them.” She stood up adjusting her injured arms grip on her stomach and hooking her leg over the edge of the ship, she turned back to Ben her eyes soft as she caught his, “don’t die,” she murmured before slipping over the edge and Ben was left alone.

Ben turned to the medbag and rummaged through it until he found the leftover Bacta, some bandages a needle and some thread, he let out a soft hiss of pain as he reached up and pulled his shirt over his head so that he could take a better look at his stomach wound. Ben folded his shirt and sat it beside him before looking down at his chest. He tried to ignore the deep scarring across his chest and back from previous fights and ‘punishments’ and tried to focus on his main injury. The wound wasn’t bleeding heavily but it wasn’t not bleeding. Ben pushed his hand against the broken skin and with his other hand he pulled up his pant legs to expose his knees and rubbed some bacta into where he knew the main breaks were.

Ben found himself shivering in the cold, he was cold, but he was hot as well. The strange temperature bothered Ben; he pushed the thought from his mind and focused on threading the needle.  
“Ben?”  
Ben jumped as the sudden noise came out of nowhere and almost dropped the needle, he looked up and came eye to eye with Rey who had seemingly returned faster than Ben had estimated, it took Ben a moment to realise he was shirtless and all his scars were showing, scars that Rey had yet to see, he opened his mouth but closed it aware that he was gaping like a fish, Rey was looking at him with a look of sheer horror and worry etched on her face, “I found the, the seat,” she paused looking down to where Ben assumed she had sat the ships seat. “where did you get so many… scars?”

Ben shook his head, his hair was hanging in his eyes and he pushed them away as Rey pulled herself into the ship and slid down beside him, she leaned forward hesitantly and gently traced one of the ugly white lacerations, “I, I thought I had healed you… why…” she trailed off.  
Ben couldn’t help but sigh as he thought about her unspoken question, “you didn’t see them through the connection because I didn’t want you to see,’ he said finally.  
Rey looked down, and suddenly caught sight of the needle and thread in Ben’s trembling fingers, Ben followed her gaze as she looked at him, “I need to stitch up my wound or it’s going to get infected,” he told her.

Rey nodded as he tried to thread the needle again with shaking hands, “do you want me to do it?” she asked. Ben shook his head though not before he gave her a grateful smile, “I’ll be fine,” he murmured and leaned back after he had managed to get the thread through the eye. He brought his fingers down and pressed one hand against his skin as he pushed the needle through, he gritted his teeth as he pulled the excess thread through and brought it to the other end. Rey placed her hand on his chest, almost directly on one of his scars and caught his eyes.

Ben pushed the needle through his stomach again as she began speaking, “why’d you do it?”  
Ben turned his head towards her as he pulled the thread through his skin and winced, “do what?” he asked as he continued stitching the wound. Rey shifted uncomfortably, “revive me?”  
He thought about that for a while, “you mean when you almost died?”  
Rey studied him as he winced while he pulled the string through again, “yeah.”  
“Um…” he tried to word it, so it didn’t sound weird, “I, ow… I couldn’t imagine living in a world without you…” Ben paused as he tied off the end of the thread and broke off the excess thread, “done.” He murmured.  
Rey was still watching him so he continued, “I… kriff this is going to sound stupid, I didn’t want to live in a world where the only person who has ever shown me compassion or, not tried to kill me was dead… I would’ve rather died than that happening…” he paused before continuing, “I, like you Rey… It may sound stupid to you… but I do.” He trailed off as he realised how stupid he sounded.

Rey shook her head and leaned forward before brushing her lips against his, her perfect, soft lips pressed against his as she kissed him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and he felt her tongue slide against his lips and he… Ben liked it. He never wanted to lose Rey, everything he had just told her was true he liked her.

Rey continued kissing him, her lips didn’t move until about five minutes later when she pulled away and brushed a tear that Ben hadn’t realised had started to fall from his cheek.

“I like you too.” She murmured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that one didn't take as long to come out, I AM PROUD OF MYSELF  
> :D
> 
> hope you enjoy the fluff, while it lasts...
> 
> HAHAHA
> 
> I'm kidding its gonna last longer cus I'm enjoying writing fluff right now.


	6. Rey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hehe, I had way to much fun writing this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to come out, I've been busy with assessments and stuff...  
> Hope ya'll are still there

A foreboding thought loomed overhead, what if the base Ben spoke of had no signal, what if they got there and found that they’d wasted all their energy on a lost cause that the two of them would be stuck, stranded on Hoth until they either froze to death or were eaten by Whumpas or some other animal that had a thirst for human blood.  
Rey shivered, her clothes were not equipped for snow, heck she hadn’t even seen snow until this instance. The only snow she’d heard about was soft and tickled your nose. Rey could confirm that theory was Bullshit. The snow on Hoth was not soft, it was hard icy and crunched beneath her boots as she fell the short distance from the nose of the x-wing to the ground.  
She decided that she hated snow, almost as much as sand, at least on Jakku the worst a person had to deal with was heatstroke or sunburn.

As Rey took in her pale shaking hands and pounding head, she realised that Ben may have been right, she may have hypothermia. She tried to recall the symptoms of it but much to her annoyance she found that in her nineteen years of living on a desert planet had taught her nothing about snow, and nothing even close to helpful about cold apart from desert nights and definitely nothing about Hypothermia.  
She would ask Ben later.  
After they got the x-wing some signal.  
After she could think straight.  
And after they got off this shitty planet.  
The sooner the better.

Rey glanced up after blowing onto her fingers that were turning a worrying shade of blue and licked her lips before speaking, “can you get the engine started before you come out?” she asked Ben, who by rights shouldn’t actually be moving in his current state.  
But at the moment they didn’t have much choice.  
Ben nodded at her and seemed to clench his jaw as he shifted in the seat, the bacta had helped his leg and ankle to begin healing but it would take an actual bacta tank to help them heal at the speed they should and they probably hurt like actual hell. She opened her mouth to stop him and do it herself but he caught her eyes with a defiance that told her he didn’t want help.

Rey shifted uncomfortably in the snow as she caught herself staring at Ben’s biceps as he moved his arms to start up the fighter.  
He liked her…  
He liked her…  
Rey slapped herself, it was so cold, the cold must be getting to her head.  
He liked her…  
Her hands feet and arms were numb which would have been a relief for the pain of her injured shoulder if not for the fact that the numbness was fricking worse than the sore muscles of a relocated dislocation.  
Ben Solo liked her…  
Not even her loose hair hanging around her neck offered any heat, she must be delusional from the cold, her lips and tongue begged for water but there was no way in hell that she was going to drink melted snow anytime soon.  
Rey looked back at Ben.  
He likes her.  
He had pulled his black long sleeved shirt back on a while ago and it now covered the hundreds of scars that laced his chest and back, his hair was tangled and hung around his neck all volume and style lost to having not taken care of it in several days.  
His huge form was hunched over the dashboard as he fiddled with the controls. Rey couldn’t help it but he reminded her of Poe whenever he was starting up a ship, the determined eyes, the way his hands drifted confidently along the buttons, he knew what he was doing.  
Except Ben wasn’t Poe, Ben liked her…  
She wondered if Finn and Poe were back at base on Ajan-Kloss, did they look for her? Were they still looking for her? It had only been two day’s but… she missed the couple’s presence. She wrapped her arms around her chest and focused on Ben again as the x-wing roared to life, the engine humming in the cold radiating heat.

Rey finally spoke, “are you able to help me push? Or do you want to stay in there and make it easier for me to push with the force or something?” She clenched her jaw determined not to let her teeth chatter.  
“That’s not how the force works,” Ben told her and Rey couldn’t help but wince as she remembered Han, Ben’s dad saying something similar to that only two years earlier, Rey blinked back the sadness as Ben continued.  
“I think I’ll stay here and do what you said though.” He paused, “like steering…”

Rey realised she didn’t know where said base was and Ben steering would help a lot. She could feel amusement flowing strongly through the bond and scowled. “I’ll push,” she grumbled as she pushed her hair out of her face, regretting leaving her hair ties back on Exogol.  
Crunching through the snow she made her way to the back of the x-wing and placed her hand on it, she pulled back abruptly at the heat of the engine and the strong sense of the force around it. Rey smiled, “not how the force works huh?” she said to the air as she placed her hand back on the jet and pushed.

The fighter moved easily and Rey sighed, almost in relief when the movement didn’t jar her shoulder, “this should be easy,” she murmured to herself and continued putting weight against the x-wing and the jet continued rolling forward.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Rey was exhausted, not from pushing, the pushing was easy, although the x-wing began to get heavier after a while the main cause of her exhaustion was from the fact that she’d been walking for at least an hour, she kept pushing and let out an angry cry when the fighter was suddenly so heavy that she could no longer push it in her exhausted state. The force surrounding the fighter was gone and Rey’s heart sped up as she realised what must’ve happened.

Ignoring her previous exhaustion she bolted to the front of the ship, she ignored the pain and the black spots that danced in front of her eyes as she pulled herself into the fighter and found Ben sprawled against the dashboard, his eyes were closed and he made no sound as she crouched over him in the cramped space.  
“Ben?” she lifted his head so that he was leaning against the chairs back and squatted over him, pressing her forefingers to his neck she determined that he was still alive. His pale skin was even paler due to blood loss and Rey worriedly pulled up his shirt and found to her relief that his stitches had not broken, the only problems she could see were the faint scars along his chest that she hated herself for not noticing before when she had wrapped his stomach.  
But then again, she was more focused on the stab wound that she had inflicted.  
Ben let out a whimper as her fingers brushed against a bruise, a thin bead of sweat trickled from his brow and his lips parted as he took in a breath. Rey shifted the weight she was putting on his legs and let his shirt fall from her grip as she rubbed her finger against his cheek, her physical exhaustion seemed like nothing compared to what he must’ve used while using the force.

“Ben…” she murmured again leaning forward, she brushed her lips against his, the soft skin was broken only by the split on the side, she ran her tongue against his lips and gently rubbed his temple with her fingers.  
She felt his eyelashes flutter against her forehead as he opened his eyes and his hands wrapped around her waist as he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her back, his lips that were motionless before pressed hungrily against hers as they embraced in the tight cramped seating of the x-wing, Ben let out a soft “kriff, Rey.” In between kisses but she cut him off by sticking her tongue through his lips like she had back on Exogol, “shhh,” she murmured as she wrapped her not in pain arm gently around his neck.  
Ben whimpered as she took his lip in her mouth and tugged ever so slightly on the unsplit side, she wanted him so bad, she’d wanted him since Takodana, she liked him and he liked her.

She wanted him.  
She didn’t care that she was stranded on Hoth, she didn’t care that Finn and Poe were missing her.  
Shit, she didn’t even care about how much her shoulder hurt when she moved her other arm around Ben to pull him closer. She didn’t care about exhaustion or getting the commlink signal.  
Right now, she just wanted Ben.  
She wanted him so much.  
And he’d been hers ever since he said he liked her those few hours earlier, ever since he’d kissed her back on Exogol.  
Ben Solo was hers and she sure as hell didn’t care what Poe and Finn might think, sure she missed them but they could piss off if they didn’t accept Ben.  
He was hers and she realised that now.  
She’d sure as hell be his if he wanted her too.  
Ben spoke, “Rey…”  
Rey loved the way he said her name, his deep voice, oh, she wanted him…  
She pulled away to utter a soft, “hmm?” before taking his lip in her teeth again.

Ben pulled away and Rey finally took in his exhausted features, he looked drained. His dark eyes were dull and bleary and his lips trembled in that cute way when he spoke, “I – I need a minute, I’ve… never done this before…”

Rey blinked, “done what?”

Ben stared at her blearily, “been in love… kissed somebody like that… I dunno how…”

Rey stared at him, his eyes spoke the truth, “you’ve never?’

“No…”

She stared at him some more, “so you’re telling me that… Ben Solo… is a virgin?”  
Ben’s jaw clenched as he nodded and Rey smiled as she pressed her lips against his neck and breathed in his scent, “well, I’ll have to fix that…” she brushed her lips along his jaw line until she reached his ear, “I’ll teach you,” she paused, “If you’ll be with me…”

She felt Ben shift as he nuzzled his face into her neck and breathed, “always…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ya liked!!!
> 
> oh and question, I'm experimenting with tags, and I know that there's a smut tag in the tags on this fic, and I'm not very good at writing that kind of stuff due to being shy and worried about judgement.  
> SO  
> would ya'll still read if I added a few smut scenes.  
> Tell me in the comments because I love to hear from you guys!!!


	7. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me: HOPE Y'ALL ENJOY  
> Everyone: GET ON WITH PLOT ALREADY  
> me: Calm down... I'm working on it  
> Just enjoy the fluff for now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhhhhh I hate how long this took to come out, I had so many assessments and I had really bad writers block  
> BUT IM BACK  
> WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER  
> I hope you're all still there...

Ben decided that he liked kissing Rey, for his second ever full on kiss. It was probably the best one so far. The closeness of the two force users was rudely interrupted when one of Ben’s broken ribs shifted unpleasantly close to where he assumed his lungs resided and his breath hitched as he struggled not to cry out at the sudden discomfort.  
Kriff he hated broken ribs.  
Rey awkwardly pulled away from him pulling her injured arm to her chest she let out a series of panicked, are you okays as Ben’s eyes watered with probably whatever water remained in his system. Clenching his fist against the ache in his stomach he squeezed his eyes shut until the pain became bearable again.  
Ben would be strong, he’d survived worse circumstances than this, he’d be fine.

Rey was watching him with those wide brown eyes, those eyes he’d always.  
Always.  
Get lost in  
“m’fine…” he mumbled hastily rubbing the spot on his abdomen to make sure he hadn’t ripped his stitches, once he was certain they were fine he took Rey’s cold and clammy hand in his and squeezed reassuringly, “doesn’t even hurt that… much.” He trailed off at his feeble attempt at lying and pulled her closer again, wrapping his arms around her and sharing their body heat.  
She most definitely had Hypothemia and Ben was beginning to get worried, they needed to get to warmth, food and water quickly or they would face almost imminent death and Ben wasn’t sure if he could take losing Rey a second time.

He breathed in her scent a while longer before urging her to sit up so he could straighten himself, “we, we should get moving…” he told her wrapping his arms around his stomach as he did the painful job of sitting up without groaning. Rey reached out an arm but apparently thought better of it and let it fall to her side again, “yeah…” she murmured, she pushed her loose hair out of her eyes and studied his for a moment while Ben looked into hers.

“What’s the plan?” he asked carefully, Rey seemed to think about this for a moment, “someone needs to push the x-wing into some sort of signal so we can contact base,” she paused, “I’ll do it, you’re in no state to walk…”  
“You’re in no state to push.” Ben pointed out.  
Rey studied him sternly, “I’ll be fine,” she murmured leaning forward and resting her forehead on his, her cold skin warming slightly as it touched his feverish head, “you have a fever, you need to rest.”

Ben eyed her, “you have hypothermia, you should not be going out into that cold at the moment.”  
They both stared at each other for a moment, before Rey stood, her injured arm falling limply beside her as she winced, the gash in the back of her leg obviously not doing her any favours as she leant against the edge of the ship, Ben sensed her dizziness coming through the bond and he warily tested out his footing before Rey put her hand on his shoulder, “stay there,” she told him, her eyes flashed in his direction as Ben huffed back onto the seat and Rey placed her feet in the gaps between his legs as she hooked her legs over the side of the X-wing and slipped over the side.  
He felt a flash of pain through the bond as she landed on the ground and the feeling was followed by a curse that Ben didn’t think he’d ever heard come out of anyone’s mouth. But then again, Rey had grown up on Jakku so he wasn’t really surprised.

“Are you okay?” he asked shifting awkwardly in the seat in attempt to see over the x-wing side, his worry faded slightly when Rey’s head came into view and she squinted at him through the glare in the snow. Her eyes were watering as she bit her lip, “I’m fine, I’m going to push the ship from behind again so you’ve gotta help me by steering okay?”  
Ben nodded and fixed his hand on the controls as Rey’s head disappeared from sight and a few moments later the ship shifted. Reaching into the force he willed the X-wing to be lighter before he steered the ship in the direction he hoped was where Echo Base was. Judging from his internal compass they were going in the general direction of West which was where he remembered the base being.

The longer he held onto the force the tireder he became but he held on until a light on the dashboard blinked on and he let go in order to call out to Rey, “Hey!” he coughed, “There’s a… light on!” leaning forward Ben discovered that the light had turned on telling him that they were in range. Rey’s head came into view beside him and she turned her head to the light before looking back to him in relief, “finally.”

Ben reached out and offered his hand to Rey so she could climb back into the ship, the commlink in the x-wing was foreign to him and nothing like the TIE communications or even the old X-wings from when he lived on Yavin IX so he decided to let Rey do the communication.  
Oh and the people they were communicating had an eighty percent chance of murdering him.  
There was that too.

Rey crouched over his lap and fiddled with the headset that she found in the compartment beneath the dashboard before finally dialling in the coordinates. Ben clenched his fingers for a moment before relaxing them again and waiting patiently while Rey drummed her fingers on the dashboard.  
Rey finally spoke, “Finn?”  
There was a pregnant pause where all Ben could hear was Rey’s and his own laboured breathing before Rey continued, “Oh thank god, Poe… Finn you’re there,” another pause. “we’re stranded on a planet called Hoth…”  
She glances at Ben, “we? Oh, me and,” she pauses wincing. “well yes, let me explain…”

Ben closes his eyes and stops listening, waits for Rey to decide he’s not worth it and leave, just like everyone else.  
A few moments pass before Rey taps him on the shoulder and he opens his eyes.  
“They’re coming,” she murmurs softly leaning in to fit her lips against his, her lips are dry from lack of moisture but he lets her, “I understand whatever you decide,” he mumbles against her embrace.  
Rey pulls away, her eyes sad, “I’ll stand with you no matter what,”  
Ben nods.

“All we’ve got to do is wait…” Rey concludes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for how short it is....


	8. Rey

The Millennium Falcon could be heard from a mile away, the sound as it exited hyperspace and into the atmosphere at lightspeed was deafening and Rey almost flinched at the sound. Her heartrate quickened as she shifted from her place where she was curled up on Ben’s lap, the x-wing having been to small for them to sit comfortably side by side.  
She had given Poe the coordinates of the fighter and they had waited for about two hours, her stomach ached with hunger, her shoulder hurt everything hurt, they were so close to freedom. Yet as Rey remembered the conversation she had with Poe, she was not sure if that was better or worse for Ben.  
“They’d think about it,” he had said.

The Falcon landed in the snow about a yard from the fighter and Rey stood up carefully as she fixed her injured right arm around her chest wincing as the muscles in the recent dislocation shifted and hefted her freezing legs over the side and landed heavily in the snow, Ben didn’t move from where he was sitting, she leaned into the Falcon and planted a kiss on his lips, “I’ll talk to them,” she murmured as she encouraged Ben to shift so she could help him out of the jet, he slid down the side and nodded at her with a pained haze in his dull eyes, Rey gave him another soft kiss, their lips sliding together for a brief moment before she limped as fast as her injured leg would allow towards the figures that had emerged from the ship ahead of her.  
Rey ran faster, the more distance she could keep between Finn and Ben until she could talk to them the better, her fingers trembled against her hip and her legs screamed for her to stop but she didn’t, her hair billowing out behind her she ran towards where she had finally caught sight of everyone.

They were just as she remembered from the three or so days ago she had last seen them, Poe with his dark curly hair and orange jumpsuit, Finn with his jacket, Rose Tico who she had talked to a few times, Chewie was there along with beebeeate who rolled frantically around Poe’s legs.  
Rey had not realised she was sobbing until she crashed into Poe’s arms and he hugged her as she shook, her sides heaving. “Thank whatever gods are out there,” Rey pulled away and stared up at the three people, the wookie and the droid that met her gaze. Finn had a wary look on his face, but he hugged her nonetheless and told her to never do this again because he had thought he had lost her.  
Chewie let out a sentimental growl and Rose gave her an awkward hug while she nearly tripped over bb8 as the droid rolled under her legs beeping indignantly about how she had not acknowledged him.

Rey wiped her nose and tried to stop the stream of snot that was running from her nostril as Poe offered a jacket that he’d brought from inside the Falcon, she shoved it over her trembling shoulders and shoved her hands in the pockets, her injured arm hung useless and painful in the warm space.  
“Shit Rey, way to give us a fright,” Finn spoke, his eyes round with worry as he looked her over, “you’re hurt…” He started forward to check on her when Rey stopped him, “we need to get Ben,” she told him planting a forefinger on his lips she continued, “I know what you’re going to say Finn, and I don’t care…” She stared up at her friend, “he’s injured, and you’d be just as bad as the First Order if you didn’t help him.”

Rey felt a lump rise in her throat, as her friends paced toward the x-wing, Poe paused and waited as she ran after them, the yard of space between the fighter and the Falcon was closed in a few minutes as they closed the gap and came into view of the injured force user, Ben was leaning against the side of the wing, favouring his broken leg and putting more weight on the leg that was only minorly broken toward his ankle.  
She heard a click and turned around to find that Finn had flicked the safety of his blaster, she glared at him.  
“Finn, please,” Rey paused eyeing the weapon as Finn stared unblinking and tense at Ben, Rey reached forward and took the blaster from his hands and touched his shoulder briefly, “please.”  
The man blinked before looking away from Ben and nodding, “I trust you Rey, but…”  
“He won’t do anything, I promise.”  
Finn nodded and pinched the bridge of his nose before reaching forward and murmuring something in Rose’s ear and she too, lowered her blaster. Rey let out a breath she had not realised she’d been holding; Poe hadn’t moved to raise any weapons he just stared blankly at the dark-haired man in front of him.

Ben looked at the group through glassy feverish eyes, his lips were wet from where she had kissed them, Rey stepped forward but Chewie let out a growl and beat her to the man, the wookie was so fast that Rey felt her throat close as he engulfed the man.  
In a hug.  
She heard a cracked cry of pain release from Ben’s lips as Chewies weight crashed against his ribs, Chewie adjusted his embrace and Ben seemed to calm as the warmth of the wookie pressing against him warmed his frozen skin.  
Rey wrapped her arms around her stomach trying to still the ache of hunger before remembering she had left her bag in the x-wing, she reached over the side and grabbed the bag from the seat, clipping it to her belt.

Rose was staring at the injured man as Chewbacca pulled away, the Wookies eyes were moist with emotion but he pulled away and lowered his head as he growled something about medical attention and Rose.  
Rey blinked at the dark-haired woman, “can you help him?”  
She paused, “If I know everything that’s going on then probably,” she looked sadly at Rey as she studied her thin frame, limp arm and small cuts that dotted her skin along with the gash along her knee. “You need attention too Rey, but first let’s get you two back to the falcon and some food,” Chewie let out a growl and started back toward the ship intending to bring it closer. 

Rey nodded as she leant down next to Ben and slid her left arm beneath his shoulders, he winced as he tried to move. Poe who had not said anything since he had arrived started forward kneeling down and sliding his arm under Ben’s other side, “let me help,” he murmured. Finn stood ahead of them next to Rose, his fingers clenched together as he helped direct Chewie to not squash them.  
Wrapping her injured arm tightly around her stomach Rey assisted Poe in hauling Ben up to his feet and winced as he let out a harsh cry, her shoulder throbbed as Ben’s huge weight hung beneath them and she felt her leg threatening to give way beneath her, the falcon landed about six meters away and she help the three of them – Finn, Rey and Ben – stumble slowly toward the ramp.

And then they were inside, Rey let out a huff of relief as she allowed Ben’s weight to fall from her shoulder and he collapsed into a seat in an exhausted huff. They then sat down and ate what Rey decided was the tastiest thing she had ever eaten in her life. 

They worked out a problem, they had no plan on how they were going to get the x-wing back to ajan-kloss.  
“We’re going to have to leave it here, Rey.” Poe had placed a hand on her shoulder and she sighed, “I know… I don’t want to, it was Luke’s and it’s the last thing left of them that I have…” she looked up at the roof of the Falcon, “I mean besides the lightsabers, but they’re not exactly the best keepsakes,” she looked back down at Poe, “being deadly weapons and all…”

Poe pulled her into a hug, “you don’t need things to remember them by Rey, you have your memories and,” he put out a hand and gestured to Ben who was slumped in his chair, “you have him…”

Rey smiled at him gratefully, “thank you, Poe, we need to go… I guess…” She found herself glancing nervously at the man in question who hadn’t moved since he had collapsed uncomfortably into the chair near the holochess table. Poe gave her another hug.  
She had not realised Rose had come up behind her until she spoke, “he’s going to be okay, Rey.”  
Rey blinked at the darker haired woman, “you sure?”  
Rose nodded, “nothings going on internally and the bones are healing nicely, my only concern is the stab wound in his stomach but that’s nothing a bacta tank can’t heal.”  
Rey let out a huff of relief, “thank you,” she whispered her eyes growing moist with tears, “I don’t know what I’d do with out him…lumpiness and all…” she trailed off as she saw Rose’s eyes flash with amusement. “I’m glad you’re happy,” her eyes misted over as she blinked towards Poe and Finn who were fighting over the only available holochess chair, Rey stared at her, “they’re together?”  
Rose nodded her eyes misty as she pulled her hair out of its casual ponytail and let it hang around her ears, not unlike Rey’s currently loose locks. Rey started towards the two men and put her uninjured sides hand on her hip, “you two are dating?” she demanded, “and I’m the last to know?”  
Poe promptly sat on Finns lap after he had won the fight over the seat, “well technically,” he nodded to Ben who appeared to be asleep, “he doesn’t know yet being a, what do you call it,” he pinched the bridge of his nose, “reformed villain? Antihero? I don’t know and all,” he chuckled as Rey flicked his wrist in annoyance, “leave him alone,” Finn squinted from his squished position under Poe’s butt, “it’s true…” his gaze was wary towards both of them it seemed but it broke off as Poe smashed his lips against his and he let out a muffled, “not now,” but then gave in.

Rey sighed as she watched the two of them, they were so carefree… so, unchanged from the horrors of the fight against the final order… heck what the hell had happened to the first order?

But then again, they hadn’t died, been brought back by their soulmate and then watched him die in their arms… Rey shook her head, Ben wasn’t dead… he wasn’t, he was asleep in his chair, Rose had left to the cockpit evidently with Chewie, she fingered with the leather of her bag at her belt, feeling the cold metal of Luke and Leia’s lightsabers within.  
Ben was here… and she no longer felt alone.

Just to make sure Rey marched to the other side of the table and leant over Ben, his eyes flickered open as she hunched over him and kissed him, she kissed him again.  
Because she loved him, and he was here.  
And she was no longer alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was all fluff, (kinda)  
> And I'm proud  
> Hope you guys like!


	9. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even with his eyes closed he could feel Poe and the ex-stormtroopers wary eyes on him, even with Rey’s exaggerated at ease manner around him he still felt like he was outcasted. Well he should be… considering he used to be part of the First Order, used to be the Jedi Killer Kylo Ren.
> 
> It still hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, BUT for an apology I have an extended 2500 word chapter to apologise for the previous shorter chapters and the long wait.  
> School work exists but I finally had enough time and motivation to continue this story.  
> Enjoy :)

The dark-haired man let out a soft groan as his stomach throbbed in response to his hunger, they hadn’t eaten in three days and the biting ache of his empty stomach was slowly getting larger as their extended involuntary stay on Hoth reached the three day mark and they had boarded the Millennium Falcon, his dads ship. Rey had begun shovelling down as much food as she was given from the rations that the resistance members had brought, Ben couldn’t bring himself to eat anything, he didn’t want to eat in front of these people that probably thought he didn’t deserve it, didn't want to eat in front of Chewbacca, whom he'd know for years, because Chewie was there and probably didn't think he deserved it, because he didn’t. He should be used to going without, he was used to going without.  
He was starving, yet he was not hungry…  
He wrapped his hands tightly around his stomach and let his mind drift to the force that hummed around his head, the feeling of the force around him was calming he let the feeling wrap around his body, partly to stifle the hunger, partly to calm his aching ribs and legs and partly again to ensure that his hasty stitches along his stomach would not rip.

Even with his eyes closed he could feel Poe and the ex-stormtroopers wary eyes on him, even with Rey’s exaggerated at ease manner around him he still felt like he was outcasted. Well he should be… considering he used to be part of the First Order, used to be the Jedi Killer Kylo Ren.

It still hurt.

It surprised him when Rey leant down and kissed him, her lips fit against his and she murmured into his mouth, “I love you.”  
Ben did not know how to reply, he could feel the resistance members eyes on him, the force was filled with humming confusion and shock, and a little bit of resignation.  
The sudden embrace in front of his known enemies was a little shocking, but it also quietened his nerves, Rey was here, she wanted him to be here, he did not have to worry about his fate.  
She was here.

When she pulled away Ben opened his eyes, hers were shining her fingers were warm and she had stopped shivering, that should have alarmed him considering she had recently had hypothermia. But she seemed to be recovering, her hands were no longer clammy, and he could feel her heartbeat coming stronger through her pulse.

The Falcon hummed to life beneath him as it began to take off, he realised with a jolt that there was no turning back now, he was now about to be brought back to the resistance base, not as a hero but also not as a villain.  
But it was very unlikely that people would see him as anything but the latter.

Ben was unsure whether he would live to see life without the constant threat of the First Order but at least he had gotten to know Rey, if only for a few days.  
It made up for the time that he had wanted to since the first time he saw her.

Rey shifted her weight and Ben winced as his legs had more weight put on them and he stifled a groan having not adjusted to the dull throb of his slowly healing legs, she uttered a soft sorry in his ear as she stood back up and her weight was relieved from his thighs. The two force users locked eyes for a moment before the Falcon moved and Rey’s hair untucked itself from behind her ear and fell into her eyes, “should’ve kept my bands,” she grumbled pushing the brown locks behind her ears and wrapping her sore arm tighter around her waist, Ben caught her other hand as relaxed beside her hip, “I like it out…” he murmured as she looked up, gently putting his hands over hers to warm them up, they were trembling.

A strong wave of longing flowed through the bond toward him before it was blocked and Rey gave him an embarrassed look through half closed eyes, “have you eaten anything?”

Ben wrapped his arms back around his stomach discreetly and nodded, “yeah, I had some,” He lied. Rey studied him for a moment, “are you thirsty?” she turned around wildly for a moment until she caught sight of Poe, still sitting on the ex-stormtroopers lap, Ben still hadn’t learned his name apart from FN-2187.  
The resistance pilot was about to take a drink from his water container that he’d pulled from his belt when Rey used her stealthy skills and reached out summoning it from his hand. She stared at him triumphantly and took a sip, “hey!” Poe protested reaching out for the water container but Rey pulled it away out of his reach and Poe fell back into the chair with a huff, receiving a loud protest from the ex-stormtrooper as his weight crashed into his lap and Ben stifled a laugh that was painful and he wrapped his arms tighter around his chest as his ribs protested. 

Rey took another sip from the canister before passing it into Ben’s trembling hands, he stared at it for a moment, the nauseating feeling that came with hunger heightened as he stared at the water, his stomach was so empty having not eaten the three days on Hoth and only twice the few days before, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to drink of eat, and still keep it down.

Shaking his head, he passed the water canister back to Rey and wrapped his hands around his stomach to stifle his aching gut, Rey took the water back hesitantly before passing the half full canister back to Poe.  
‘Or half empty’ Ben caught himself thinking.

“Rose!” Rey exclaimed as the woman came bustling down the hall from the direction of the cockpit her hands filled with medical supplies, “your turn,” she spoke to Poe only for a moment before fussing over Rey. Ben watched with interest as Rose encouraged Rey to take off her satchel and belt that held the two lightsabers and sat them on the table along with her wraps and jacket that were no longer held on by her belt leaving Rey standing in only her white hooded shirt, beige trousers and her boots which were later off as she sat down on the now vacant chair that Poe and Finn had left.

Ben smiled a little as he watched the medic, she seemed to know what she was doing as she lifted Rey’s leg and started picking out the shards of glass that had been missed all the time muttering under her breath about how annoyed she was that one: she had been left behind when they had left on their little ‘excursion’ to find the Sith Wayfinder, and two: that she had gone and gotten herself almost killed on the way.

Ben swallowed as he remembered that Rey had died, if only for a few moments, but she had.  
And he had never felt so alone.

He focused back on the two females in the room, Rey now had her arm in a sling and a fresh bandage around her knee, the two women were now talking in hushed whispers, he caught a few words, “saved,” and “life.”  
They were talking about him.

He looked away as he felt their eyes fall on him and Rey went to stand up but Rose put a hand out to stop her, “you need to rest Rey,” Rey nodded and she seemed at ease but a wave of worry was hitting Ben square on through the force. Rose picked up her medical supplies and Ben felt himself tense up, if only a little as she came closer to him.

She smiled warily as she stared at him and Ben felt subconscious as he realised how kriffing tall he was next to everyone. Even sitting down, he was almost taller than the dark haired woman.

He could feel Rey’s eyes on him and on Rose, her uncertainty was blatantly obvious as Rose crouched down beside him and inspected his legs. Ben hated how awkward this was, they were supposed to be enemies it felt so unnatural and he was the only kriffing unarmed person on the ship. This was noted as the dark-haired force user noticed the small blaster that swung from the resistance members waist.

He could feel her small hands feeling the tender bones in his legs and let out an unwanted hiss of pain as her fingers landed on the break in his left leg. Her fingers lingered there for a moment before she looked up at him, “the broken parts of the bones aren’t aligned which is why they’re not healing the way they should.” Her gaze was guarded as she eyed him, and it should be, for all she knew he could kill her with a single motion of his fingers.

Except he couldn’t because he was so kriffing exhausted and bringing someone back from the dead and then dying yourself wasn’t a feat that left you running around gleefully. So really Rose shouldn’t be afraid, except she was because she didn’t know how the force worked and how exhausted Ben was and how much that took a toll on his ability to use the force.

Because really, if she wanted she could kill him right here and right now with a few shots from that blaster hanging from her belt.

Ben realised that the woman was talking again and lifted his eyes to look at her.

“-have to realign the bones and get the breaks in some bacta for them to heal properly which will probably hurt but its really the only thing I can think of to help.”

Ben forced himself to nod, the movement jarring his ribs and he bit his tongue to stop any sound arising from his lips as the darker haired woman reached toward his shirt. He tightened his grip around his ribs and shook his head, “I’m fine--” he said bluntly and then added, “thank you,”

She watched him for a moment before leaning over and whispering in his ear, “I don’t trust you, but I still want to help, and it’ll make Rey a whole load happier if you just let me.”

Ben stiffened as her breath moved the hair on the side of his head and finally, reluctantly removed his arms from his chest and allowed his tattered shirt to be lifted up where he could feel Rose’s scrutinising gaze studying every burn mark, every scar, every injury that had ever been inflicted upon him since he was born.

It was like revealing to a parent a mistake, that you’d been bullied during school, or telling every secret that you ever had to a complete and utter stranger, which he was in a way. He didn’t know this person he hated how insignificant and utterly powerless he felt in this situation he waited for the pity and disgust to hit him through the force from this strange woman but instead he found nothing in the medics head but a soft anger along with duty as she studied his old injuries.

Her gaze finally rested on the stab wound that had been inflicted, closed and then reopened in only a day. Her fingers tracing the hasty stitches that held the hole together, it wasn’t a deep wound, but deep enough that it had bled quite a lot.

The wound on his back, beside his spine where his lightsaber had exited his stomach hadn’t reopened which was a relief.

Rose was breathing through her slightly opened lips but she changed to breathing through her nose and he watched as it wrinkled as she breathed in the smell of the souring wound, “that’s infected,” she murmured and Ben wondered if he was supposed to hear it despite the fact that he already knew. He could feel her fingers tracing his ribs and gut and he decided that he would never ever let anyone do this again, he felt so vulnerable and he hated it. He hated knowing that he was at their mercy, that at the slightest wrong move he would be dead.  
Even if they didn’t kill him now it was just a slight lengthening to his lifespan that ended in the close future.

“Can you tell me approximately how many of your ribs hurt so I can guestimate which ones are broken, and which ones are just bruised?”  
Ben blinked and shifted awkwardly before reaching within himself with the force, breathing deeply with his nose he closed his eyes and felt which ribs rattled as he exhaled and winced before holding up seven fingers.

“Can you speak or are your vocal cords damaged?”

Ben thought about this, he could speak per say, it hurt. But he could, he just didn’t trust himself to speak. He was talking to Rey earlier; he just couldn’t bring the words to come out of his mouth when it came to talking to someone who was just going to kill him anyway.  
When it came to whether or not his vocal cords were damaged that was another story altogether.  
Finally he cracked open his lips and let out a soft “yes.” 

He wanted to hit himself for how feeble his voice sounded, the hoarse plea of his voice in that one word, he didn’t deserve pity, or love. Or anything.

He had killed, hell he had even caused a lightning bolt to destroy the jedi temple and kill people, padwans that were both younger than him and less experienced, he had killed Voe… And Hennix.

He killed Ren, because Ren had killed Tai.  
He had done so many…  
Evil  
Things.

There were so many people that were dead.  
Because of him.

Rose nodded, “I think about three or four ribs are broken, whatever else is hurting is just bruised. Nothing bacta can’t fix… We might need to put more extensive care on the other wounds but aside from all that you’ll live.”

Ben almost snorted, because living now was just temporary, as soon as they arrived at wherever the resistance base was, he’d be executed. As he should, because he deserved it.  
Kylo Ren no longer would live, to kill and hurt people anymore.  
Ben Solo would no longer live to be hurt any longer, Snoke was gone.  
Palpatine was gone.  
And he would be safe, as long as he was on the path to execution and a quick release to death.

Rey would be safe, everyone would be safe.  
He just had to die.

Ben Solo lowered his head into his hands as the Millennium Falcon drifted into lightspeed and tried to hold back tears that fell nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked, Please feel free to leave a comment! it makes my day when I hear your thoughts on this fic  
> Also, I'm thinking of giving this fic a name change as OverLooked was just a temporary name until I thought of a better one.  
> Any suggestions.  
> Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take too long for me to write :D


	10. Rey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is that plot? Nope just angst...  
> AND FLUFF/FRIENDSHIP PLEASE DONT LEAVE!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter does swear... a lot. sorry... it was inevitable and this is my first ever fic where I've added swearing so I hope I did okay  
> sorry this took so long to come out, I am currently in the middle of exams right now and I've had like no motivation...  
> On another hand I've opened art commissions on my instagram  
> The details are on my insta @_miss_chatterbox_art  
> Anyway...  
> enough rambling  
> ON WITH THE CHAPTER  
> Hope you guys like :)

Ben was clearly more exhausted than Rey, from what she could see of him when Rose wasn’t blocking him from her view even her dislocated shoulder and busted knee looked like nothing in comparison to the literal definition of discomfort, pain and panic that was sitting opposite her.

His pale features were pale and sunken looking from blood loss along with dark shadows running along and under his lids.  
He seemed like almost a whole other person from the man who had once called himself Kylo Ren.  
The man that sat in front of her was experiencing so many emotions Rey had to steel herself against the blow of them through the force.  
Confusion, pain, helplessness and reminiscence practically rolled off him in waves. 

Rey could not blame him. In his head all he could probably think right now was that he was the outcast, cornered by heroes. All with weapons. And he was defenceless, injured and entirely at their mercy.  
Though he did not let his fear or pain show in his guarded expression, Rey could tell by the way his eyes went unfocused momentarily every so often that he was not fully aware of what was going on the entire time. When he was focused, he was looking everywhere but at Rose, looking for possible escape routes or perhaps just feeling the intense nostalgia that Rey could feel through the bond of a younger Ben Solo.  
A more innocent and happier little boy exploring his dads ship.

Rey wiped her eyes with her left hand and focused on the situation at hand she realised that Rose had just spoken and she must’ve tried to take a look at the wound beneath his shirt because Ben’s hands had moved protectively in front of his gut. Rose leaned forward and spoke into the man’s ear.

She wanted so hard to interfere, to tell Ben that it was okay, that he would be okay, and they could have a life together as soon as they got home to Ajan – Kloss. But she could not say that, because she did not know if he would be okay.  
The threat of the resistance’s wrath was looking ahead, and the future was looking dark for both her and Ben.

She could not help but think back to the conversation she had had with Rose a few seconds earlier as she had gotten Rey’s arm into a sling and bandaged her knee.  
“I don’t understand why you feel that he’s safe to have around,” she had murmured to Rey. Rose clearly was not at all comfortable with the ex-Supreme Leader being around.  
Rey had thanked Rose for helping her before replying to their medics unasked question.  
“I trust him Rose, he’s changed.”

“You sure?”

“yes, he-” she had broken off for a moment as she shifted her arm into a more comfortable position  
“I died Rose.”

That left her speechless for a moment before she shook her head, “what?”  
Rey nodded, “I was dead, I should be dead. I died.”  
Rose nodded thoughtfully, “Finn mentioned something…”  
Rey didn’t think about how Finn could’ve known before she continued, “I was dead Rose, and he- Ben. He used his remaining strength to bring me back.”  
“Wait… you can do that?”  
Rey nodded, “I figured it out ages ago, anyway. He would have died, but I kept him from leaving. I could let him die.” She wiped a stray tear from her cheek as she remembered the loneliness and quiet through the bond they shared.  
“we’re connected Rose, a dyad in the force. Two that are one. You get it.”  
Rose was looking confused.  
“I mean if he dies, I die, in a way. We already were connected through being a dyad, but when I kept him from dying before. I- I- we’re even more connected.”  
Rose looked startled for a moment, “so if he dies, then you do too?”  
Rey nodded, “sort of, in a way. When he died or was dying. I felt so lost like- like I wanted to off myself too.”  
Rose nodded as she glanced behind her, “so because of what you did, technically if either of you were to die, you would lose yourself?”  
Rey took Rose’s hand in hers, “please help him, Rose. I- I don’t know what I’d do without him…”

Rose stood up and smiled at Rey, the other woman’s hair was out like Rey’s and she seemed like an entirely new person without her usual casual ponytail or bunl and bangs. Rey began to stand up so she could follow but Rose stopped her, “No, Rey you need to rest.”

So now Rey had to sit and watch as Ben Solo, sat on a chair looking like a cornered loth rat as Rose finally coaxed him to lift his shirt up so that she could examine his hastily stitched wound and ribs.  
She could hear her talking and Ben spoke back, Rose nodded and then left Ben to walk back to Rey.

It was then that BB8 came screaming down the cockpit hall and into the room they were standing in before making several high pitched screeching noises at Ben, Rey tried to comprehend what the little astromech was saying but he was beeping too fast for her to properly understand him.  
She heard Ben mumble something to the droid before petting it gently on the head.  
Rey almost laughed; Ben could understand droid beeps.

BB8 seemed to calm down and rolled back out the hall letting out soft beeps as he headed back up to the cockpit where Rey could hear an impatient Chewie growling insults at what appeared to be a passing ship.  
Poe yelled out a curse that Rey really wasn’t in the mood to hear in that moment.  
Rose stopped short of Rey, “I should go check on them,” she said to Rey, “you need to get Re- I mean Ben to eat… his stomach felt completely empty.” She smiled at Rey sympathetically. Rey felt her chest tighten, did Ben lie to her?  
After Rose left down the hall she took it upon herself to glare at the darker haired man.

She could feel his emotions shift to unease as she continued staring at him until finally he looked at her. His dark eyes were filled with guilt as Rey stood up and dragged --with a lot of difficulty-- her chair across so she was sitting in front of him. He had his arms wrapped over that top of his gut, his fingers pale and shivering.

Rey leaned forward and took one of his hands in hers before holding it to her lips and giving it a soft kiss. She heard Ben let out a soft sigh.

“Ben…” she murmured; she didn’t get a response but the dark haired mans hooded gaze rested on her eyes so she took it upon herself to continue.  
“What is it I hear about you having not eaten?” she placed his hand gently on his lap before turning her gaze back onto his now openly guilty expression. She didn’t give him a chance to continue as she spoke, “you lied to me… you told me you ate something. You Promised you did.”

“Rey…”  
“No… Ben, you promised. You told me you ate… I want you to eat something.”  
Ben shook his head, “I- I can’t”  
“You—”  
“Rey listen.”  
“Shut Up!” Rey let out a yell, her held in emotions from since she was little coming all out in this very moment. She didn’t even know why. This wasn’t the same as her parents abandoning her and lying about coming back… and yet it was similar all the same.  
“I have known you -and I mean Ben solo You by this- for what? Three days? I spent those three days alone with you on Hoth, a fucking freezing cold planet, with clothes meant for a desert. I stopped you from dying, granted I did stab you before that but you get what I mean.” She was rambling now and she could feel tears spilling from her lids, she didn’t care how much she loved and cared for him, he lied to her and she was angry.

“Rey… Please.”  
“Don’t please me Ben, You Lied to me, you told me you ate. Did I kiss a coward?”  
She saw him flinch at that, but she almost didn’t care. “What are you so afraid of?” She asked, “do you think that the food is poisoned or something? Do you really think we would stoop to that level? That we’d stoop lower than the first order or something? I don’t care about whether or not you can eat, you will eat, and I will watch and make sure that you do. Do you hear me? Because I swear to kriffing whatever fucking god is out there, if you don’t eat than I will not stand behind you, no matter how much I feel compassion or love for you or—fucking whatever. What is the fucking point of defending a person from the possibility of being sentenced to death when they have a fucking death wish anyway?”

She trailed off, panting. Rey’s lungs were struggling deeply to try and get the amount of air they required for her to function, she avoided he companions gaze, the guilt, fear and absolute terror that rolled freely off him in waves hit her hard and she found herself regretting being so harsh. It also got her thinking about why he wore the stupid mask, because he was such an open book all his emotions showed at once and he couldn’t seem to conceal it.

She turned away from him as she stood, “I’m going to grab the left-over food and water.” She turned on her heal and stifled her limp as she walked away from him towards the packed-up leftovers. Making sure to heap up the food tray with whatever leftovers were there she grabbed Poe’s discarded water canister and sat down back in front of him sitting the tray on her legs, remembering his were broken.

Ben looked like he was going to speak but Rey interrupted, “I don’t care… Eat. Because I fucking swear if you don’t I will force feed you.”  
Ben stared at her for a moment before lowering his head and lifting what Rey assumed was a piece of fish to his lips and putting it in his mouth and chewing. Rey nodded, “I want you to at least have finished half of that plate by the time Chewie comes in here to tell us what’s going on, if you haven’t I’ll let the wookie deal with you because I need a break.”

Finishing her sentence she settled in her chair and watched Ben Solo eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANGSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT  
> If you liked the angst there will be more I promise...  
> *cough* and possibly some hurt/comfort/whump *cough*  
> and if you didn't like it...  
> PLEASE DONT LEAVE IVE GOT MORE FLUFF  
> hope you liked it :D  
> Make sure to leave a comment because they make my day and encourage me to keep writing


	11. Poe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe wished desperately for Ben to still remember him.  
> Surely he should… Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oop, this chapter was faster right?  
> Oh! and I've written another fic, The Deception of Humanity, I'd love it if you could check it out, although please make sure to read the tags and at least be fifteen if you're gonna read it because I'm making it graphic, its my first try at stuff like that so I hope its enjoyable :D  
> next chapter for this fic however shouldn't take too long to come out as I have some soft of plan for it :D  
> ANYWAY, without further adue (i honestly have no idea how to spell it haha)  
> ON WITH THE STORY  
> (my spelling is terrible because its literally 1:13 AM while I write these notes and post this) hope you enjoy :D

Poe was astonished when he emerged from the Falcons cockpit with Finn and BB8 at his heels to find a very angry Rey and a very exhausted, annoyed Ben Solo. Poe did not have to be force sensitive to feel the strong emotions practically radiating off of the two jedi.  
He came to an abrupt halt in the doorway and winced as his astromech rolled into his heel. He placed a hand on Finns shoulder to prevent him from going any further. The very angry Rey had stomped over to Ben with a food tray full of leftovers, Poe heard Rey mutter something to the dark haired man and he eventually took a reluctant bite from what looked like leftover colo claw fish, Rey proceeded to give the poor man a death glare while he chewed.  
She looked up obviously suddenly realising Poe, Finn and BB8 were watching, she looked almost guilty for a second before standing and stomping over to Finn and Poe. BB8 let out a soft chirp that received a smile from the brunette. Poe did not expect the slap that followed and let out a gasp as the sting of her backhand brought his hand to his cheek. He chuckled, however, when he realised that Finn had received the same treatment.

“Ow,” Finn let out a yell, “what was that for?”  
Rey glared at the two of them for a moment and Poe raised his hands in surrender, “woah there starfighter.”  
Finn opened his mouth, but Poe spoke before he could make it worse, “can you explain what me and my very handsome friend over here have done to wrong you?”  
Rey let out a long sigh and the pregnant pause that ensued almost had Poe speaking again.  
“You two’s moods are really affecting how Ben is feeling, you’re making him so anxious,” Rey paused to swallow and Poe could see tears brim in her eyes before she wiped them away.  
“I know you don’t trust him, but can you please at least do a better job at making him feel a little more…” she paused again seemingly grasping for words, “welcome?”  
Poe nodded.  
“I still don’t understand…” Finn said.  
Poe sighed.  
“He is so anxious that he didn’t eat anything before… he actually lied to me,” Rey trailed off for a moment, “and I yelled at him.” She put her head in her hands and wiped a tear from her eye, “perhaps go introduce yourselves to him?” she mumbled.  
Poe eyed the broken man sitting in the chair behind Rey, he had barely eaten anything from the tray, his glum face mirroring almost exactly how he used to look as a child after being scolded by his mother. The poor guys usually tousled curly hair was ratty and matted, his skin was pale and grey from blood loss and he was so thing, he looked like at any moment he’d be blown away by any abrupt turns of the ship.  
He also looked like he was going to be sick.  
Poe took a moment to study his feet, he could remember a time from when the two of them were younger, Ben was five and Poe was around eight, or slightly younger. The gifted child had gotten a hold of a damaged astromech, he had somehow managed to fix it up and named it bb9, the same droid that was currently rolling anxiously around Poe’s legs beeping encouragements to him to go talk to his old friend. Poe was caught up in another memory. When Ben was ten and Poe thirteen the buy had left the droid with Poe when he became a trainee pilot so that Poe wouldn’t forget him.  
As if he could forget the poor child.  
Poe had been his only friend, his safe place to go whenever his parents were fighting, and that day. When Ben had been shipped off to learn the force with his uncle, was the last day Poe had seen Ben Solo before he was Kylo Ren.

Poe wished desperately for Ben to still remember him.  
Surely he should… Right?

but if the ex-supreme leader remembered him he didn’t show any recognition whatsoever.

Poe wiped his eyes and nodded optimistically at Rey, he gravved Finns hand and led his significant other over to the dark haired jedi before letting his lips slip into a large grin.  
Ben looked up and Poe beamed at him, “hi!” he could see the unease show on his old friends face, “this is Finn,” he pointed at Finn, “and you surly remember me right?”  
Ben studied him for a moment, he turned his head briefly to Rey with a panicked expression revealing what looked like a nasty burn scar beneath his temple, his hair having been tucked behind his ear and revealing the wound. Poe shuddered. The man turned back to Poe and nodded.

Poe almost screamed in joy and almost hugged the tall ass force user but stopped short as he continued, the mans voice had deepened but no matter how deep it was, it still sounded hoarse and it still hurt when he said what he did.  
“You’re the pilot?” he coughed, wrapping his arms around his ribs. “from the supremacy?”

Poe’s heart sunk into his stomach, his shoulders drooped, “yeah… that’s right.” He let Finn say a quick and cautious Hi before he slumped down into the only vacant chair and rested his head in his hands.  
This didn’t make any sense, Poe had known Ben his entire life. Poe’s parents were close with general Leia, surely the force user should remember something more than that time on Snoke’s ship.  
But then again it had been almost twenty years, that must be the reason.  
But no matter how hard he tried, he kept thinking back to the strange burn on the side of his friends head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for how short this chapter was, I wanted two chapters in Poe's point of view so I split it in half, the next one will be longer I promise.  
> anyways  
> Feel free to leave a comment as it really encourages me to continue this :D


	12. Poe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all went downhill from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO!!! A slightly (early?) chapter...  
> for some odd reason I was super inspired to write this at like two oclock in the morning, so hopefully there aren't too many mistakes!!!  
> Sorry about the angst but we all knew it was coming hahaha

Finn was standing beside him and Poe was relieved to find that his hand was no longer rested on the handle of his blaster, his fingers poised to click off the safety at any second. They instead merely hung relaxed at his sides. BB8 was beeping next to his knee softly asking Poe if he was okay, Rey still hovered over their recently reformed evil counterpart practically force feeding him (pun not intended) her expression was troubled, her fingers clenching around the tattered fabric that hung around her waist that she had put back on after Rose had treated her urgent wounds stubbornly refusing to part with the clothes that she had almost died in… or possibly had died in.

Poe didn’t know if he particularly wanted to know what had happened between the two Jedi on Exogol. Desperately needing to do something Poe had to practically force himself to stay sitting, Rose and Chewie were piloting, they would be perfectly fine. Leaning his head against his boyfriend’s hip Poe let out a sigh, his entire body was tense with anxiety. This entire situation was stressing him out and he was certain that his life expectancy had dropped a few decades because of it.

It was hard to imagine that the man sitting in front of him, just across the holochess table used to be the Jedi killer Kylo Ren, the guy had refused to eat because of anxiety. The whole thing felt like some strangely pleasant nightmare. Pleasant being the fact that his six foot giant friend had returned to the light and would hopefully stay that way, but the whole thing was laced with the thought that maybe, just maybe the guys time in the First Order had broken him, and whatever had broken, had stayed broken.

Poe had suddenly come to the realisation that Finn was rubbing his back, the guy was insufferable sometimes the feeling however was rather calming and Poe felt his erratic breathing finally slowing down to normal for the first time in the past few years. He closed his eyes and just breathed for a moment, his lashes tickled his cheekbones as he leaned into Finn’s hip relishing his closeness wishing that he could talk to him comfortably about his thoughts, and about Ben without the looming fear that his lover was broken too.  
In a sad but inescapable existence, they all were broken in some way or another. Ben and Finn more than the others but when he thought about it, Poe decided that everyone. No matter how hard they tried to hide it, or however much they did not show it.  
Everyone was irrevocably broken; some just hadn’t come to terms with it yet.  
It was a harsh reality to live in.

Taking in a shaky but calmer breath, Poe reopened his eyes. His partners hand was no longer rubbing his back and he took a moment to register why. Rey was standing over Ben; her hand was resting on his sweaty forehead. The food tray was discarded on the floor, “Ben, I’m so, so sorry.” Rey was continuously muttering the apology beneath her breath as the dark-haired man heaved in shaky breaths, Finn was murmuring encouraging words to him although his expression was guarded Poe knew that Finn would do anything for Rey. BB8 was nowhere in view although Poe could hear him rolling somewhere to his left.  
Poe sprung to his feet his calm composure completely gone again, he would work on it later. Rey was sobbing now as she kicked the food tray away from her vicinity and knelt to look under Ben’s ratty black shirt. Finn glanced at Poe, “whatever fever he had from earlier has flared up again, Rose had dubbed him okay but obviously somethings made it spike.”  
“Should I get Rose?”  
“No! She has enough on her hands. Come and help me get him off the chair, so he has something solid to sit on!”  
Poe nodded, noticing that Finn was struggling to keep the holochess chair from swivelling.  
“I think his stomach’s infected,” Rey told them through a sniff, “Rose said it might be before, but I thought he’d be fine.”  
Poe ushered Rey out of the way as he and Finn positioned themselves around Ben’s broad shoulders and heftily lowered him to the floor so he was able to lean against the wall, his broken legs splayed out in front of him, Ben let out a pained groan as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and screwed his eyes shut.  
“BB8! How far is Ajan-Kloss from where we currently are in hyperspace?”

There were a few beeps as the astromech rolled up the hall and eventually came back to tell Poe that there was about two and a half hours until they reached the resistance base.  
Poe cursed under his breath, “come on buddy.” He spoke to Ben as he curled his legs into his stomach, “hang in there, Solo, not too long now and we’ll be able to fix you up.” He glanced at Rey who seemed to be completely out of it, her eyes were so wide as she cried. Poe took her hand in his and rubbed the knuckle of her thumb in what he hoped was a comforting way, “c’mon Benny, you gotta make it through this. For Rey.”

It was then that Ben’s gaze completely focused on Poe for what seemed like an eternity though Poe knew it was only a couple of seconds. The ex-supreme leader’s intense dark eyes had fully registered that Poe was there after he had called him by the nickname that had just kind of stuck when he was like six.  
It was only a few seconds though as Ben’s eyes flashed back to that horrible dull, broken brown and he turned around and emptied his stomach of everything he had eaten just before, and then continued to dry heave and retch up several mouthfuls of blood. The guy seemed so small in that moment of weakness, he was completely at their mercy in his last waking second and he had spent it looking at Poe in a way that he hadn’t looked at him in almost a decade.

Poe took up the task of gently rubbing the violently shaking mans back as he heaved up everything from his stomach, Rey unknowing of what to do had taken up the difficult task of crying and attempting to hold Ben’s matted overgrown hair out of his face.  
Finn had left the room, hopefully to get Rose as none of them were experienced in medical treatment or anything so Rose’s slightly more than amateur doctor skills were desperately needed in this moment.  
She entered the room a few moments later, her hair in a messy ponytail and her eyes frantic as she bustled towards them, Ben had finally stopped coughing and was leaning against the wall with no energy to wipe the thin line of blood that had trickled down his chin. Rey did it for him, wiping it on the back of her hand and then scuffling out of the way holding her arm to her chest, the sling hanging discarded on her hip as Rose crouched down beside them.

Rose then reached up and felt Ben’s temperature and continued to talk softly to him, “Okay Solo, I’m going to ask you a few yes or no questions and I’m going to need you to respond to them. Just a nod or a shaking of your head will do if you can’t talk.” She smiled gently at the larger guy and then lifted up his shirt to inspect the hastily stitched wound in his stomach.  
“Now we know that several of your ribs are broken, but that doesn’t explain the blood you’ve obviously coughed up.”  
Ben groaned in return.  
Rose turned to Rey, “what was the cause of the stab wound?”  
Rey shot Ben a guilty look before replying, “I… stabbed him.”  
Poe didn’t know how Rose kept her face so calm, he opened his mouth to try and ask Rey what in the kriffing universe she was doing stabbing him when Rose spoke over him.

“With what?”  
“His lightsaber…”

Poe felt a little lightheaded, this guy had been stabbed with his own lightsaber, and he was still alive?! Rey answered his question before he had a chance to ask.  
“I healed him afterwards though…”  
“Okay, let me get this straight.” Poe tried to keep his voice steady, “wait, when did this particular event happen?”  
“Kef Bir…”  
“Kef Bir okay, so first,” Poe stared at her, “you decided to you know abandon us to go find some weird--”  
“Sith way-finder.”  
“SHUSH, I am speaking!” Poe put his head in his hands for a moment, “after Leia you know, gave her life to bring him back you decided oh hey, I’m going to go on my merry ol’ way and stab him?”  
“But I healed him…”  
Rose interrupted them, “that doesn’t explain the fact that he still has the wound…”  
Poe tried to speak again but Rey continued, “I don’t know Rose.” She was crying again, “he transferred his remaining life force into me to bring me back to life… I stopped him from leaving me.” She let out such a broken sob that Poe had to look away for a moment, “and he was bleeding again, I mean I’m assuming it may have been from reversing me healing him or something?”

Poe had to feel for the poor guy, he had died? Twice… in the same day. It was a little difficult to get his head around. Ben was still leaning against the wall in almost the same position as before when they looked back to him.  
“Okay, Solo I get that the cause of the vomiting was from eating after not having eaten in a while right?” Rose began questioning.  
Ben nodded; his lids half closed.  
“but why isn’t the wound cauterised if it was a lightsaber that caused it?”  
Ben shook his head; Poe took it as the fact that he didn’t know.

“Maybe it was the fact that you know, the wound got reopened?” Finn said.  
Poe nearly leapt out of his skin, he hadn’t realised that Finn had re-entered the room.  
Rose was nodding her head, “perhaps… in any case, the stomach wound is infected most likely the cause of an unsterilised needle or the wound sitting for too long. I’m going to have to remove the stitches…” She seemed to have to steady shaking hands, “how long until Ajan-Kloss?”  
“About two hours or so.”  
Rose seemed to lose a little of her composure, Rey had BB8 leaning against her legs.  
“Okay, I’ll need some scissors.” Rose instructed, Finn passed her the medical bag and she took out a pair of medical scissors before inspecting the thick threads that held Ben’s stomach wound closed.  
“Now, Ben before I continue, you don’t have any injuries to your spine do you?”  
The jedi closed his eyes for a moment his arms relaxed for a brief second before he shook his head.  
“Do you have any aches in your stomach besides the ribs and the stab?”  
Ben shook his head again.  
“All right, Poe get some travel bacta and some antiseptic ready, Finn I want you and Rey to take place at an arm each because this is going to hurt like hell.”

Ben was already closing his eyes and Poe desperately hoped he didn’t go through all this just to get trialled and then sentenced to death.  
Finn took Ben’s right, more dominant side as Rey was down and arm and Rose waited for Ben to nod his consent before gently coaxing the blade beneath the tight threads and allowing the wound to breath.  
It all went downhill from there…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, that happened... sorry for the cliff hanger  
> I'll hopefully get the next chapter out around my other fic that I'm currently writing hahaha  
> Hope you liked it!! I really enjoyed writing the dialogue between Rey, Poe and Rose.  
> Ben's kinda just there as always hahah  
> as always make sure to leave a comment because you guys make my day when I hear about what you think :)
> 
> (do you guys like emotional Rey for a change?)
> 
> OH AND 100+ KUDOS THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!


	13. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe lifted his head from Finn’s shoulder and was looking at him worriedly, “about half an hour or so… why?”  
> Ben closed his eyes and leant his forehead against Rey’s knee, the brunette’s fingers from her injured arm softly laid tangled in his hair, “I’m fine,” he assured her.  
> Rey’s hand was in his hair, the other attempting to stem the flow of blood from his abdomen.  
> He had smiled quite a lot recently, that was what the light side had done to him, Rey made him smile.  
> And he was smiling again…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to sincerely apologise for how messy this chapter is, I'm not very good at writing multiple things at a time and I am sorry for how completely confusing this chapter gets.  
> A quick warning that yes, it does contain badly explained injury, it jumps around a lot and a lot of things are happening at the same time so I'm very sorry...
> 
> Hope you enjoy it anyway

Ben tried to conceal the short-lived gasp that escaped his lips as the metal of the medical scissors squeezed underneath the threads holding his skin together. He could feel Rey and Finn’s grips tighten on his shoulders as his entire body tensed in response to the sudden cold durasteel pressing against his skin.  
The pressure was finally released a few seconds later as the blades of the scissors closed, and his chest wound was once again a gaping hole in his abdomen. The instant the infected wound was hit by the stale artificial air inside the Falcon the skin began to sting, the hollow ache beneath his chest that came from broken ribs and an empty stomach slowly dulled as his chest wound once again took over all his other existing injuries, he could feel Rose dabbing at the blood that seeped from the broken blood vessels.

The jedi pulled in a deep breath that rattled his broken bones, he could feel the wet liquid antiseptic being rubbed into the dirty wound, he felt the grip around his shoulders tighten as his back arched in response to the pain that came from the antiseptic killing every single germ that the broken skin had received since the injury was inflicted, the metallic taste of blood on his tongue strengthened as he tried and failed to prevent himself from biting off the tip of his tongue.  
Ben was certain that Rey was murmuring something in his ear, but he couldn’t quite concentrate on the words other than the sound of her voice. Where the kriff were some painkillers? pride be damned, Ben’s abdomen hurt, he sucked in short gasps of breath through his nose biting his lip he barely managed to suppress the hoarse cry that escaped from his lungs.

His arms strained to stop Rose from rubbing at the broken skin, the rubbing was only making it worse, tears were welling in the sides of his eyes.

Ben tried to focus on Rey but it turned out that turning his head took a lot of effort so instead he found himself looking at Poe, the pilot who was sitting right in the path of his eyes. The guy was holding a tub of travel bacta, his hair was a mess of curls. Ben hadn’t recognised him before apart from the fact that he had ‘interrogated’ the rebel about two years back. Yet the way he called him Benny had sparked some sort of memory in his mind, something from his childhood. Ben cursed his unreliable and messy memory, he hated that everything from before his time in the first order was blurry and disfigured. His temple throbbed every time a memory tried to resurface, and he was left in complete disarray when he couldn’t quite catch onto whatever the memory was.

He looked away when he noticed the pilot catch him looking at him, another hoarse cry filled the stale air around him and it took Ben a moment to register that it was his, he could feel bile rising in this throat and he desperately hoped that he wasn’t going to throw up again, the first time was bad enough and he had food in his stomach then. His mouth still tasted like it.  
Ben clenched his fists, what the hell was he doing? This whole thing was completely ridiculous, the resistance… helping him? After everything he had done to them?  
It was absurd.

“Okay, Poe I need you to put your hands here to try and stop the bleeding,” Rose was speaking again and Ben tried to clear his mind enough to stay lucid, he was not going to pass out.  
He was already vulnerable enough without adding unconsciousness to the fray of his ever growing list of symptoms.  
He desperately wanted to apologise to Rey, for lying and for practically everything that had happened since takodana. He couldn’t however gather enough thoughts to his head or get his mouth to work other than the harsh breathing that was currently escaping his lips. His eyes drifted to her as her face came into view, pressure from Poe’s hands was placed on his gut.

A few days ago, Kylo Ren would not have found something as small as a stab wound painful, the old Ben would’ve used the pain to his advantage in a fight against the resistance.  
Something had changed though, when Ben Solo had rejected the dark side and the name Kylo Ren he had become more willing to feel.  
And that may have not been such a good thing as all Ben Solo had felt since then was pain.

He tried to focus on Rey, tried to take his attention off of the ever impending execution he would be undoubtably sentenced to, for no matter how hard Rey tried to keep her promise to stand with him, it was her against the whole resistance and Ben doubted that the rebels would be forgiving towards him. He tried to take his thoughts off his broken ribs and broken legs, he brought his mind instead to Rey who was leaning over the top of him, her beautiful brown eyes soft, her hair hanging around her jaw. He couldn’t help but grin feebly at her, his lips upturned as he gazed into her eyes, the whimper that escaped his lips as bacta was rubbed into his wound forgotten. All that mattered in this moment was Rey. Ben lifted his now free left arm to her cheek and let his thumb ghost her lips, wishing he’d get to know her longer as Ben Solo but knowing that him being executed was in the best interests of everyone.

A particularly painful jolt of his ribs as the broken bones settled in places they should never have been sent his legs scrabbling against the floor struggling for purchase but finding nothing but the food tray abandoned at his feet. His free hand went to his chest as he felt a dull throb where the rib had settled. He squeezed his eyes shut until the worst of the pain had subsided before looking back to the other half of his dyad.  
Their dyad.

Rey’s fingers brushed against his split lip before she turned her head in Finn’s direction, her lips moved. She was talking but Ben’s attention was instead diverted to the little astromech that had reappeared at his feet. The droid that had started most of the problems involving Rey, Finn and Poe.  
The little one-of-a-kind orange and white BB unit with the constantly crooked antennae and the odd sounding voice box. Ben smiled fondly at the droid that had caused all this mess, without this little droid, he would never have made it this far, without this droid sending the first order on a search for the map to Luke Skywalker he would never have found Rey.

“You built him you know?” Poe was speaking and it took Ben a moment to realise he was talking to him, Ben’s voice came out hoarse as he replied.  
“I’m sorry?” Ben let out a hoarse cough and clutched at his left side again as the broken bones in his chest moved again, his shallow breathing uneven.

There was quite a lot of murmuring while Rey rubbed circles into Ben’s hand beneath his thumb before his right side was released and Rose spoke, “the wound is clean, you’ve still got to keep still though because I can’t stitch it this close to base and the bacta tank.” Ben focused his eyes on her, “you need to keep as still as possible because every time you move I can feel a bone shift and you may end up with one puncturing a lung, I don’t know how to deal with that so try and wait until we get to base before doing anything stupid.”

Ben watched as she handed Rey a wad of cloth and it was pressed to his abdomen, Poe was hovering over the top of him, his hand tightly clenched with Finn’s as he waited for the medic to finish speaking, “I’m not sure how to fix your legs at the moment as they’re extremely out of line so we’ll have to wait for a proper medic for that as well…” She pushed her hair out of her face, her eyes suddenly wary, “I’m going to help Chewie with the piloting,” she stood up and was gone, BB8 following closely behind.

He did not understand why they were going to so much trouble to try and keep him from dying when there was a ninety nine percent chance he was going to be sentenced to death anyway.

Ben rolled his head back to Poe who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, head leaning on the ex-storm troopers’ shoulder. Ben took Rey’s hand for reassurance that she was there, his unsteady fingers resting on her pulse point, he kept his fingers there for a moment, trying to forget the time when he had felt the same wrist.  
But no pulse point.

He pulled in a deep breath but stopped short as the sudden movement caused another throbbing pain in his chest, he settled on watching Poe, the guy was looking at him with a sad look in his eyes, his hand was latched with Finn’s, head on his shoulder, “the droid, BB8,” the pilot paused for a moment, “you built him… When we were like five or whatever… I mean,” he seemed to clench Finn’s hand for a moment, “I was eight…”

Ben found himself wracking his memory for any proof of this, he could remember Leia. There was another family that was part of the resistance? Was that what Poe was talking about?  
“I don’t know…” Ben’s voice was hoarse as he pulled in uneven breaths, he couldn’t understand why his chest was suddenly feeling tight, he had taken it as a cause of his ribs being broken but he was suddenly struggling to take in any breath.  
Poe had stopped talking, his eyes were wary for a second and Ben could’ve sworn he felt a strong wave of regret coming from the resistance pilot, “it has been 20 or so years, I guess.” He said finally.  
Ben gave a stiff nod of his head, he could feel his ribs shift as his breath heaved in and out in short gasps. Rey’s pressure on his chest was released for a second as she looked down at him with concern in her eyes, “are you okay?” her hand moved from the cloth against his skin to his hands, she lifted his hand to her chest and squeezed it with her fingers, Ben was surprised to find that his hand had turned an odd shade of pale blue, “you’re so cold…” Rey was murmuring. 

Ben suddenly recalled the pain he had felt in his chest a few moments earlier, he looked to Poe, “how far?” he asked the pilot, his voice less than a whisper.

Poe lifted his head from Finn’s shoulder and was looking at him worriedly, “about half an hour or so… why?”  
Ben closed his eyes and leant his forehead against Rey’s knee, the brunette’s fingers from her injured arm softly laid tangled in his hair, “I’m fine,” he assured her. He could feel Rey’s concern through the bond, his heart was racing, it was possible, that perhaps he would not make it to the resistance base after all.  
His breathing slowly slowed down from the erratic gasps that he was heaving in to nothing as he slipped into the embracing darkness of unconsciousness, Rey’s hand in his hair, the other attempting to stem the flow of blood from his abdomen.  
He had smiled quite a lot recently, that was what the light side had done to him, Rey made him smile.  
And he was smiling again…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANOTHER HUGE APOLOGY, ITS ANOTHER CLIFF HANGER AND I'M SO SORRY!!!  
> next chapter may take a while to come out as I'm back at school and I am so so sorry for that but fear not it should get updated within the next three or four weeks :) Hope you enjoyed this and make sure to leave a comment as they make my day :D
> 
> HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY TERRIBLE WRITING!!! I REALLY HOPE THAT I AM GETTING BETTER :D
> 
> I know there are a lot of plot holes at the moment but I'm working on resolving them in future chapters.


	14. Rey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya!!!! I know I said I would post this chapter after I've written the next few but I'm going through a lot of stuff right now and school has been a lot so I haven't actually gotten around to that. Next chapter is partly written though so I thought I'd post this :)  
> Believe it or no this chapter was actually beta read and edited by the awesome @theloveablemoron and I am so thankful for it as she was able to pick up on all my grammar and spelling mistakes hahaha.  
> Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Rey noticed the change the moment Ben closed his eyes; she had been feeling his discomfort through the bond for a while. She had thought it to be a cause of the shallow gaping hole in his abdomen but the minute he had looked up at her, smiled and then stopped moving altogether caused her abject terror and worry for him.

Poe and Finn were resting against the wall, a tangle of limbs with Poe’s leg’s tangled around Finn’s. Rey almost smiled but the silence from the bond was worrying her out of her mind, she gently rubbed Ben’s temple, “hey…” she murmured, pushing the hair that had stuck as a result of the sweat beaded along his forehead out of his face, his breathing was coming in slow gasps and Rey realised with a jolt that his pale skin had begun to turn a disturbing shade of blue. His skin was so cold…

“Ben,” she raised her voice frantically her composure no longer present as she attempted to wake the unconscious man, placing her pointer and index finger beneath his nose confirmed that he was no longer breathing apart from a few shallow gasps that rattled in through his nostrils every so often.

“Finn,” she kicked the ex-stormtrooper with her leg not wanting to move away from Ben, the man woke with a start, his bleary eyes alert almost at once, Poe followed shortly after. 

“Someone needs to go get Rose!” she told them, trying but failing to keep her voice steady, “or Chewie, I don’t know.” She gritted her teeth as she moved her injured arm away from her chest to press the bandage against Ben’s ever bleeding chest, the six-foot giant didn’t stir, “please.”

Poe stood up almost immediately, “what’s wrong?” he asked.  
Rey hefted Ben’s sweaty head into her lap hoping the extra height would offer easier access to air, “I don’t know,” she looked up at the pilot, “he’s barely breathing and I can’t wake him up…”

Poe instantly sped up the hallway leaving Rey with Finn and her unconscious other half, Finn looked like he was about to speak but obviously thought better of it and closed his mouth. Rey grit her teeth; Finn may have been her friend, but he was being a rather lousy one at the current time. Although she couldn’t blame him for being wary of the ex-supreme leader of the first order, she did wish he could be more forgiving of the currently injured Ben Solo who was nothing like the man she had once known as Kylo Ren.

Rose was at her side within a couple of minutes, Poe did not return. Rey assumed that he was piloting with Chewie, but her confusion doubled when the Wookie emerged from the cockpit shortly after Rose.

“What happened?” Rose demanded, out of the corner of her eye, Rey could see Chewie growling at Finn, but she turned her attention to the unconscious man in her lap.

“I-I don’t know, he just.” Rey worked on untangling a knot in Ben’s hair, “passed out…”

The medic’s fingers were instantly on Ben’s chest feeling around his ribs and the wound in his chest, Ben heaved in a thick, short breath and Rose’s eyes became panicked as she turned to Rey, “we need to get him on his side, but if we do it may damage him further…”

Rey tried to keep her voice steady, “what’s wrong with him?”

Rose didn’t answer, she could practically see the cogs turning in her friend's brain before she spoke again, “I think rolling him on his side would be the best way to go so he doesn’t choke.”

Rey raised her voice, “choke? Rose! What is going on?”

Rose had her hands beneath Ben’s side and was attempting to roll him over, Rey looked up for help from Chewie or Finn but the two were gone, she wiped her forehead and pushed her hair angrily out of her face before helping Rose get Ben onto his side. The man’s mouth opened a little bit as he let out a shuddering cough and then there was blood running down his chin, his chest was still.

“Rose,” Rey warned but Rose already had her fingers beneath Ben’s nose, her trembling hands moved away after a little bit as she grabbed Rey’s hand and got her to push against his abdomen to stem the blood that was running freely from the injured flesh.

“Chewie should be back by now,” The medic muttered.

Rey grabbed Rose’s shoulder before she could continue moving around Ben, “what is happening to him?!” she demanded, Rose stopped and Rey could feel the tremble under her hand as Rose spiralled and Rey felt a little bad for yelling, “he--” Rose took in a breath, “one of his broken ribs have punctured a lung causing it to collapse, I-, he currently has oxygen entering parts of his body that doesn’t need it, filling his chest cavity.” She paused as Rey gave her an obviously confused look, “the part of his chest that contains all his organs like his liver and kidneys.” Rey nodded in understanding as Rose moved her fingers back beneath his nose, “and if I cannot drain the air and blood then he is going to asphyxiate and enter cardiac arrest.”

Rey let go of Rose’s shoulder, “what do you want me to do?”  
Rose shook her head, “there’s nothing you can do until Chewie and Finn come back with the tube and syringe I asked for,” she continued shaking her head, “I’m not sure entirely how to do it so we’re just going to have to keep him alive until we get back to base and the bacta tank that we had installed while you were gone.”

Chewie and Finn re-entered the room almost as soon as Rose had finished talking and Rey let out a shuddering sigh of relief upon seeing the equipment they had brought.

Rose took the tube, needle and syringe that they held and looked at Rey, “I need you to do mouth to mouth as soon as I tell you to.”  
Rey nodded, she had seen a lot of people giving mouth to mouth back on Jakku so she was familiar with the action, she was already above Ben’s head so she waited for Rose to tell her what to do.

She gently rubbed Ben’s temple trying to hold back tears, “I’m so sorry,” she murmured to him, “I am so so sorry…”

Ben choked up another mouthful of blood, the sound that escaped his lips made Rey want to scream, “I’m sorry,” she continued murmuring as Chewie rolled him back onto his back, the Wookie let out a mournful howl as he stared at the injured man.

Rose placed a hand on the wound in his chest before taking the tube and needle in the other, “I’m going to insert a tube into his chest cavity and drain the air,” she told no one in particular, “Finn, I need you to keep him still, Chewie needs to help me.” She turned her head to Rey, “the minute I insert this.” She held up the needle, “into his chest, I need you to breath into his mouth, you need to plug his nose as well.” She wiped the needle with an antiseptic covered cloth, “we need to keep his lungs oxygenated enough to inflate the collapsed one and keep him alive.”

Rey nodded, her fingers wiping away the blood from Ben’s chin, she was relieved to find that he was still breathing, although barely, his chest rose and fell sporadically in short gasps but at least he was breathing.

She watched as Rose pushed the needle into the skin just above the stab wound, Ben tensed beneath her but didn’t wake.

“Now Rey,” Rose told her.  
Rey didn’t stop to watch what Rose was doing but instead lowered her head, clamped Ben’s nose shut with her fingers and closed her mouth over his before breathing several breaths of air into his lungs. She lifted her head for a moment to take in a few gasping breaths for herself before continuing with the action, he had the metallic taste of blood in his mouth and she could feel the thick liquid drip out of his exposed lips as she turned his head for a moment hoping it would prevent him from choking.

She continued to breathe into his mouth until Rose tapped her shoulder and Ben heaved in a shuddering breath of his own.

Rey felt feint, she placed a kiss on his lips not caring to stop the tears that ran freely down her cheeks. Looking up she could see Rose using a syringe to pull what was probably excess air out of his chest, Chewie’s hand was on the stab wound in his gut and Finn was kneeling beside everyone poised to do anything to help. Rey wanted to hug them all but Rose interrupted her thoughts, “we managed to reinflate his lung,” Rose continued removing whatever air she pulled from Ben’s chest, “However, we’re not out of the woods yet, so don’t get too excited.” The medic looked tired, her strained eyes were warm however as she smiled at Rey, “on a brighter note I am going to make sure he gets through this Rey, I promise.” She looked down at her bloody hands and the syringe as she worked, “I got the tube in the correct place.”

Rey was too relieved at the thought of Ben surviving to think properly about the fact that Rose had only estimated where to insert the tube, she left another kiss on Ben’s lips as he heaved in another shuddering breath and the remaining blood in his mouth trailed down his chin, his breathing slowing to an even pace. For once, Ben Solo looked relaxed. She took Chewie’s furry hand in hers and leant her head against his shoulder for a moment as the Wookie let out a howl. Finn had stood and was walking back up to the cockpit.

He came back a short while later to announce that they were within view of Ajan-Kloss. For once, Rey allowed herself to be calm. They would be safe now; proper medical help could be applied, and life could go back to normal. However, she couldn’t help but look mournfully down at Ben, hoping desperately that their attempts at keeping him alive would not be in vain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA, ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER  
> sorry about that... next chapter hopefully shouldn't be too long as it is partially written already :)  
> should be posted in the next few weeks hopefully?  
> Anyways, I'm a little lost right now and it would mean so much to me if you guys could comment as they really make my day.  
> I love to hear your thoughts on my fic :D  
> UNTIL NEXT TIME FRIENDS   
> Hope you like  
> (sorry for the long A/N haha)
> 
> (also is anyone else excited for the new marvel shows that are coming out? I know its completely unrelated to this fandom but I am STOKED ahaha)


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